We got this one wrong last year, like many did, thinking that sentiment around The Boy and the Heron—namely, how it truly feels like a swan song for Miyazaki Hayao—wouldn’t be enough to tip the race in its favor. We figured that misgivings about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse—which entered the race with Annie, PGA, and ACE trophies in hand—being a sequel were overblown or would be negated by, well, misgivings about The Boy and the Heron’s inscrutable wave of strangeness. Flash-forward a year and we’re looking at another nail-biter that’s leaving us feeling discombobulated from the echoes to last year’s race.
In one corner is The Wild Robot, which enters this race as our frontrunner, having been lavished with a boatload of trophies at the Annies, as well as the PGA’s animation prize. The critically acclaimed film is directed by Chris Sanders, now on his fourth nomination without a win, so sentiment is presumably on his side. Adapted from the popular children’s book of the same name, The Wild Robot also pulled in over $300 million at the global box office, a number that’s only unimpressive when compared to the $1.68 billion haul of Disney’s Inside Out 2.
In the other corner is the no-less-adored Flow. Gints Zilbalodis’s breakout film, a wordless wonder about a cat trying to survive a great flood, has been embraced by critics, and while its global box office is a fraction of The Wild Robot’s, it’s already Janus Films’s highest-grossing film at the U.S. box office. While audiences are still discovering the film, that it also scored a nod for international feature tells us that AMPAS voters have already fallen in love with it.
We’ve ignored the Annie tea leaves in the past and benefited from it. Putting aside the likelihood that a blockbuster of Inside Out 2’s magnitude stands to siphon more votes away from The Wild Robot than any other film in the category, there are plenty of signs indicating that Flow, not least of which the subtle yet impactful way that it grapples with anxieties around climate change, feels like the natural move for today’s much-more-international AMPAS.
Will Win: Flow
Could Win: The Wild Robot
Should Win: Flow
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
