Oscar Animation Race 2027: Wildwood Leads a Grown-Up Field

Laika's "Wildwood" is the studio's first PG-13 film in 17 years of making features, and at 130 minutes it ties the record for the longest English-language animated film ever made. It currently looks like the film to beat in this year's Oscar race for Best Animated Feature, according to Variety's official predictions, updated Nov. 3, 2026.

Director and producer Travis Knight, already an Oscar nominee for "Kubo and the Two Strings," has earned considerable respect from his peers and audiences alike. "Wildwood" is among the year's most acclaimed films, even though its box office performance has been less than stellar.

Knight appeared at this year's Pixels and Pencils panel, Variety's conversation with animation directors at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. He was joined by:

• Brad Bird ("Ray Gunn")
• Daniel Chong ("Hoppers")
• Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado ("Forgotten Island")
• Leah Nelson ("Tangles")

All are contenders in the animated feature race. Louis Clichy's "Iron Boy" and Andrew Stanton's "Toy Story 5" are also in the running, helping make this one of the category's most competitive lineups in recent years.

What has changed since Disney's dominance?

Since "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" won the animated feature Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards, neither Disney nor Pixar has taken the trophy. Instead, "The Boy and the Heron," "Flow" and "KPop Demon Hunters" have won in succession — a significant shift for a category largely dominated by those two studios since "Shrek" won the inaugural award in 2002.

Then there is "Tangles," a film that makes no attempt to disguise its ambitions as an adult story. First-time feature director Leah Nelson co-wrote the film with Sarah Leavitt, adapting Leavitt's graphic memoir about her mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease in the late 1990s. Abbi Jacobson voices Sarah. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays her mother and also produces, alongside Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen.

Both "Tangles" and "Wildwood" are being submitted in the drama categories at the Golden Globes, where animated films have traditionally defaulted to comedy. It is technically a matter of category placement, but it also signals how these creative teams want their films to be perceived.

None of this is entirely new. "Persepolis" and "Anomalisa" earned Oscar nominations years ago, and Japanese filmmakers have made animation for adults for as long as the medium has existed.

Could an animated film crack Best Picture?

Only three animated films — "Beauty and the Beast," "Up" and "Toy Story 3" — have ever earned Best Picture nominations, and the last of those came 15 years ago. In a year that could produce the first documentary feature nominated for Best Picture, "You Can See Everything," an animated film could join the lineup too.

The awards calendar is already set. The Governors Awards, honoring Glenn Close and Ridley Scott with honorary Oscars, take place Sunday, Nov. 15. Preliminary voting for the Oscars shortlist in 12 categories runs Dec. 7-11, with the shortlist announced Tuesday, Dec. 15. The eligibility period closes Dec. 31, 2026, nominations voting runs Jan. 11-15, 2027, and the official nominations arrive Thursday, Jan. 21, 2027.

Conan O'Brien hosts the 99th Oscars on Sunday, March 14, 2027, airing live at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood — a night that may confirm whether animation's grown-up era has permanently redrawn the category's boundaries.