Animation/VFX Nominations at the 73rd BAFTA Awards

It is that time once again for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs) to honour the best in film with the 73rd BAFTA Awards! The major category nominations were revealed by actress Ella Balinska (2019’s Charlies Angles) and actor Asa Butterfield (Hugo) via a live-stream that took place on Tuesday morning (GMT).

Although the animation and visual effects categories were not highlighted during the live-stream, they were properly revealed on their website. For the sake of this article, we’ll be focusing on these three categories: Best Animated Film, Best British Short Animation, and Best Special Visual Effects.

The Best Animated Film category was assigned with four nominations, an increase from last year’s three choices, and it looks to be a head-on battle between Disney and Netflix with this one. Of course, Disney’s two mega-hit animated sequels expectedly got their spots with Disney Animation’s Frozen II, and Pixar’s Toy Story 4, but there’s also Netflix’s ambitious hand-drawn Christmas movie Klaus that also got their spot.

Not only that but Aardman’s A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon was also chosen as the sole British nominee of that category. While the stop-motion sequel has been a hit domestically, it will be streaming in North America later in 2020 through Netflix (hence why I mentioned their earlier-mentioned “head-on battle” with Disney) with an Oscar-qualifying run for next season.

When it comes to the Best British Short Animation category, there were three locally-produced animated shorts that were nominated, consisting of Grandad Was a Romantic, In Her Boots, and The Magic Boat.

Disney’s “live-action” remake of The Lion King was also able to sneak into the Special Visual Effects category as the studio continues to push their photorealistic animated movie as a prolific VFX award contender. With this category, it will go up against other VFX nominees including 1917, Avengers: Endgame, The Irishman, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Speaking of Star Wars, the BAFTAs will present Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy with the Fellowship, the ceremony’s highest honour.

A reminder list of nominees and recipients for the Animated Film, Special Visual Effects, and British Short Animation categories are as follows:

Animated Film

• Frozen II – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho
• Klaus – Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh
• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon – Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley
• Toy Story 4 – Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen

Special Visual Effects

• 1917 – Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy
• Avengers: Endgame – Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick
• The Irishman – Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman
• The Lion King (2019) – Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy

British Short Animation

• Grandad Was a Romantic – Maryam Mohajer
• In Her Boots – Kathrin Steinbacher
• The Magic Boat – Naaman Azhari, Lilia Laurel

The 73rd BAFTA Awards are scheduled to take place on Sunday. February 2, 2020, and will be presented by chat show host Graham Norton.

How do you feel about this year’s animation/visual effects nominations at the BAFTAs? Which ones are you hoping for to win?