With Oscar nominations a little more than a week away, the races have — to a certain extent — solidified around a handful of contenders. Everybody knows that One Battle After Another will earn a host of nods, alongside the likes of Sinners and Hamnet.
But a little further down the ballot is a significant race where the contenders may not be as locked in as it seems.
For the last few months, the Best Animated Feature category has been the tale of two mega-hits — one streaming and another theatrical. First, you have KPop Demon HuntersSony Animation and Netlix’s lightning-in-a-bottle smash that became the streamer’s most-watched original film of all time. Then there’s Zootopia 2the long-awaited sequel to a previous category winner, whose December release loomed on the horizon throughout early award conversation. And when it finally arrives, the Disney film shattered even high expectations at the box office and charming audiences to the tune of $1.65 billion.
The rest of the category, as least according to Gold Derby predictions, has been presumed to look something like the recent slate at the Golden Globe Awards, which also honored Pixar’s Eliothe Cannes films Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rainand the anime box office champ Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle.
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Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
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Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc
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The Spongebob Movie: Search for SquarePants
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Colorful Stage! The Movie
But there’s another major studio release — a hit, no less — stacking up precursor nominations that could shake up the category and make for an unexpected slate.
Unlike Disney’s Zootopia 2DreamWork Animation’s The Bad Guys 2 might not be sequel to an Oscar-winning movie (or even an Oscar-nominated one for that matter), but a slew of Academy Awards precursors have signaled a liking for the film, which grossed $240 million worldwide.
The Producers Guild of America Awards, the Annie Awards, the Casting Awards, the Art Directors Guild Awards, the Visual Effects Society Awards, the Art Directors Guild Awards, and the Motion Picture Sound Editor Golden Reel Awards have all nominated The Bad Guys 2 in their Best Animated Feature categories, and BAFTA put the sequel on its longlist.
That’s a serious amount of accolades for a film currently sitting in 10th place in Gold Derby’s combined odds.
What’s causing the disconnect? The Bad Guys 2 wasn’t quite the hit that the other studio animation contenders were — with the glaring exception of Elio. The Pixar film earned $154 million at the worldwide box office and may be riding the coattails of the studio’s awards track record into the conversation for 2026.
The Bad Guys 2 also lacks the prestige of a festival berth, like Arco and Little Amélie.
But there’s clearly a lot of love for the animated gang of thieves turning a new leaf. Could the Oscars reward it in kind, proving that a bad beginning doesn’t have to be the whole story?
