6Widely seen as a shoo in for a Best Foreign Picture nomination at this year’s Oscars (it was France’s official submission) PERSEPOLIS has instead been brutally snubbed:

Surprisingly missing from the list is “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the European Film Award for best picture. Missing, too, is critically hailed “Persepolis,” which won a jury prize at Cannes and was voted best animated film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle.


Ouch.

1 COMMENT

  1. This pretty much means that we will not see Persepolis or Paprika amongst the final nominees for Best Animated Film. Most of the animation wing of the academy will pick the popular animated films. This disappoints me as an animation fan deeply.

  2. The creation of the animation category was to ensure that ‘real’ films wouldn’t have to compete with ‘cartoons’, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.

  3. “This pretty much means that we will not see Persepolis or Paprika amongst the final nominees for Best Animated Film.”

    Well, PAPRIKA won’t be nominated because it’s not eligble for this year’s Oscar (the list of submitted, eligible animated features is at http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2007/07.11.08a.html )

    PAPRIKA was eligible last year but didn’t get a nomination, in part because the roster of nominees resulted in there only being three nominees rather than five, which seems to be the same situation this year. So the chances don’t seem to favor PERSEPOLIS or the eligible anime TEKKONKINKREET getting an aimated feature nomination, but we can always hope…

  4. I think the animation category has always been three.

    Did the Persepolis vote get split between nominating for the “best foreign” and “best animated”? Or is this a not voting part?

  5. Very unfortunate. Not only does it stand up alongside live action films for script and directing, but is easily the best animated film I saw this year.

  6. “I think the animation category has always been three.”

    The rules for the Animated Feature Oscar category hold that when there are fewer than 16 films deemed eligible, there will be three nominees; when there are 16 or more eligible, there will be 5 nominees.

    Since the category’s inception, the only time there have been 16 or more eligible films was for the 2002 Oscars (awarded in 2003) where SPIRITED AWAY won over “Ice Age”, “Lilo & Stitch”, “Spirt: Stallion of the Cimarron”; and “Treasure Planet”

    Last year, there were originally 16 films deemed eligible, but one was withdrawn (“Arthur & The Invisibles,” a mixed live-action/animated film, wich was determined to not meet the at-least-75%-animated requirement for qualifying in this category.) With the slate of eligible films reduced to 15, there could be only three final nominees, which of course reduced the chances of an anime or genre-favorite animated film getting the nod.

  7. I noticed Bee Movie was one of three nominated for a Globe. Ptui. It’s meaningless for Ratatouille to best such a flaccid competitor.

    The various awards for movies beg for the same treatment as comics awards: ignore them, enjoy the stories.
    I wish I could remember the actor who said her Oscar was “next years’ trivia.”

  8. And to this question:

    “Did the Persepolis vote get split between nominating for the ‘best foreign’ and ‘best animated’? Or is this a not voting part? ”

    Since we’re at the stage of determining which films will be nominated in the Foreign Language Film category, there may not be a formal splitting-of-the-vote-between-Oscar-categories phenomenon here.

    If I’m reading the Foreign Language Film Oscar rules (at http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/rules/rule14.html ) right, the gist seems to be that countries submit films for consideration (one film per country), the Academy’s “Foreign Language Film Committee” screens the submitted movies, and they vote by secret ballot to determine the final nominees.

    Similarly, the final nominees for the Animated Feature category are determined by a “Animated Feature Film Award Screening Committee” (http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/rules/rule07.html ). Unless there are significant numbers of members in common between the two committees (not impossible,) I don’t think the question is one of empowered voters deciding “Do I vote to nominate this as a Foreign Language Film or as an Animated Feature?”–a situation where splitting the vote may happen.

    All that said, there’s every possibility that a person nomiating for Foreign Language may say, “Well, this is good, but it’ll probably get a nod from the Animated folks, so I’ll vote for something else” and vice-versa, but that’s the way the Oscar nominee-determining system is set up, that doesn’t seem to be quite the same thing as seeing votes split up…

  9. Grr. Voting for the three Best Picture Oscars are open to the entire membership of the Academy.
    Ratatouille, The Simpsons, and Persepolis were nobrainers. I have seen all three, and I think Persepolis could redefine animation with a win in much the same way Maus redefined comics with the Pulitzer.
    That said, what about the animated shorts?

  10. Not that anyone’s likely to still be reading this older thread, but it looks like PERSEPOLIS pulled out a nomination in the “Best Animated Feature” category after all!

    It’s up against RATATOUILLE (in all likelihood, the favorite) and SURF’S UP, but in getting the nomination, it beat out SHREK THE THIRD and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, which may have been viewed as locks for at least a nomination.

    So there’s some Oscar-love for PERSEPOLIS. Perhaps there’s some justice after all!

  11. as an iranian girl who is struggling this Islamic regime (mentioned in PERSPOLISE) , I think this movie deserves to recieve reward
    for it’s subject .
    this really means to our people to tell the world who we really are and what days we are spending in this country.
    and I recommend you all to read the book.