What are the animation feature contenders at the 2026 Oscar and Bafta Film Awards?

Last year, DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot quickly emerged as the favourite to win the main animation prizes, sweeping the Annie Awards in early February with nine wins including best animated feature. But at Bafta and Oscar it was not to be: Bafta voters opted for Aardman Animations’ Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, while Ampas plumped for the wordless Flow by Latvia’s Gints Zilbalodis.

This year once again sees major US animation studios face competition from plucky indie contenders for the animated feature prizes. What is especially notable in the case of Bafta is the puny number of entrants to the category: just 10. That means there will be only three nominees for the animated feature Bafta this year — down from four for the past four years. It is a slide in participation that might give concern to the Academy.

Disney has entered two major titles: Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia 2 and Pixar’s Elio. In 2017, Zootopia won the Academy Award and lost the Bafta to Laika’s Kubo And The Two Strings. In a year that has otherwise lacked giant animated hits, voters may wish to reward Disney for its box-office achievement, with $1.14bn worldwide at press time. In the history of this award, sequels have won the Oscar twice (Toy Story 3 and 4) and the Bafta once (Toy Story 3). Disney last won the Bafta and Oscar four years ago with Encanto.

Pixar is the undisputed animation king at the twin film academies, winning the Oscar 11 times since the category’s introduction for the 2002 awards, and eight times at Bafta since its reintroduction in 2007. Directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, hearttugging intergalactic adventure Elio saw its box office stall at $154m worldwide. Pixar was nominated for the animated feature Oscar for each of the past eight years, and for the Bafta in each of the past 10 years — last winning both with Soul in 2021.

Netflix has five films in play this season, and one of them is a major contender: KPop Demon Hunters. A contender for Oscar, that is — Bafta deemed the film ineligible due to the sequencing of its release on Netflix’s own streaming platform and in UK cinemas. Still, Ampas voters may go all in on Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ musical about a K-pop-singing, demon-hunting all-female trio. Netflix won the animation Oscar and Bafta three years ago with Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and also the Bafta in 2020 with Klaus. Netflix and the BBC backed last year’s Bafta winner Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

Netflix does have a Bafta contender this year: In Your Dreams, Alex Woo’s fantasy adventure about a sister and brother questing into a dreamscape on a mission to save their parents’ marriage. The film will likewise compete at Oscar, as will three other Netflix titles: Phil Johnston’s Roald Dahl adaptation The Twits; Genndy Tartakovsky’s adult-skewing Annecy premiere Fixed, about a dog enjoying his last 24 hours with testicles intact ahead of being neutered; and Han Ji-won’s South Korean romantic space adventure Lost In Starlight.

DreamWorks has three films in the mix, including The Bad Guys 2, Pierre Perifel’s sequel to his own 2022 film, adapted from the Aaron Blabey book series. The Universal release grossed a reasonably robust $239m worldwide since its release in July. However, The Bad Guys was not Oscar or Bafta-­nominated, and the sequel was not widely hailed as a creative step forward.

DreamWorks Animation’s Dog Man, adapted from the Dav Pilkey graphic novel series and directed by Peter Hastings, grossed $146m for Universal since release last January. Dog Man is a spinoff to 2017’s Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, which was not nominated for Bafta or Oscar.

DreamWorks also has Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, based on the Netflix series, and combining live action and animation. The show is a streaming phenomenon, raising expectations that the Ryan Crego-­directed film might prove a cinema smash, but worldwide box office had reached a so-so $80m for Universal at press time, following a September release.

Gabby’s Dollhouse is an Oscar play only, and so is Derek Drymon’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Square­Pants, the fourth film in the ongoing Paramount/Nickelodeon franchise, which began on TV as an animated series in 1999. None of the previous SpongeBob films received nominations at Oscar or Bafta.

Anime titles

Japanese anime titles derived from manga gave cinemas a box-office boost in 2025. Many were released, but only one — Haruo Sotozaki’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle — has been entered for the Baftas. The Sony/Crunchyroll release grossed a staggering $774m worldwide at press time, the sixth-biggest worldwide box-office hit of 2025.

Sony/Crunchyroll’s Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc, directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, has been entered for Oscar but not Bafta. The film has a profitable worldwide box-office total of $154m. Likewise submitted to the Oscars are a trio of Japanese anime titles from Gkids: Kenji Iwaisawa’s 100 Meters, which premiered at Annecy last June, Hiroyuki Hata’s Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing, and Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO. Gkids also has director duo MTJJ and Gu Jie’s Chinese animated sequel The Legend Of Hei II.

A 2026 release for Sony Pictures Classics in North America and Sony Pictures Releasing International elsewhere, Scarlet is the latest original from Japan’s Mamoru Hosoda, whose Mirai remains the only non-Studio Ghibli Japanese film nominated for the animation Oscar in 2019. Scarlet premiered out of competition at Venice, and is seen as the Japanese anime most likely to find favour with voters this season.

Festival debuts

Zootopia 2, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters and the Demon Slayer film are all nominated for the animated picture Golden Globe, alongside two French productions. One is Arco, from director Ugo Bienvenu and a producer roster including Natalie Portman. Neon acquired North American rights shortly after the film’s Cannes premiere, and an Oscar win for Janus Film and Sideshow’s Flow last year gives encouragement that a European indie film can go the distance. Arco won the Cristal Award for best feature film at Annecy in June, and the hand-drawn life-affirming tale of time travel could land in a big way with voters.

Arco has a battle on its hands: Golden Globe-nominated rival French production Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain likewise premiered at Cannes last May, and won the audience award at Annecy. Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han direct and co-write, adapting from Belgian author Amélie Nothomb’s 2000 autobiographical novel The Character Of Rain, describing the world through the eyes of a three-year-old living in Japan with her Belgian family. Gkids releases in the US, and Vue Lumière in the UK.

Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life premiered at Cannes, played Annecy and received an awards-­qualifying run in the US courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. The French director has been Oscar-nominated twice for animated feature: The Triplets Of Belleville in 2004 and The Illusionist in 2011. At Bafta, he was nominated for film not in the English language with The Triplets Of Belleville. His new film follows the life of playwright, novelist and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Picturehouse Entertainment’s UK release is not in time for this year’s Bafta Film Awards.

Rounding out the 10 films competing at Bafta is Dazzler Media UK release The Glassworker, directed by Pakistan’s Usman Riaz and an Annecy title in 2024. The film tells the story of the son of a pacifist glassblower who is in love with the daughter of an army colonel. It competed for the animation Oscar last year, when the film was also Pakistan’s submission in the international feature category.

Among the 26 animated features competing at Oscar but not at Bafta are two religious tales: Angel’s David (about the Goliath-slaying biblical figure) and The Salvation Poem Project’s Light Of The World, about apostle and gospel writer John.

Notable festival premieres in the mix at Oscar include Obscured Releasing’s Sundance launch Endless Cookie, the Canadian animated documentary from half-brothers Peter Scriver and Seth Scriver, investigating their own heritage differences: Peter’s mother was a Cree member of Shamattawa First Nation, while Seth’s mother was white.

Amsterdam’s IDFA in 2024 provided the launchpad for David Baute’s animated documentary Black Butterflies, which tracks three women who migrate as a result of climate change. Documentaries are rarely nominated for major animated feature awards: Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee achieved the feat at both Oscar and Bafta in 2022, and Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir was nominated in the category at Bafta in 2022.

Launched at Tribeca, Latvian duo Lauris and Raitis Abele’s Dog Of God is an adult-targeted comedy horror based on the true story of Thiess of Kaltenbrun, who in 1692 was put on trial for heresy after declaring himself a werewolf.

Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro’s comedy horror Night Of The Zoopocalypse established its genre credentials by launching at Sitges in October 2024, and is inspired by a concept from executive producer Clive Barker. Viva Pictures released in the US, grossing a decent $2.1m, while Kazoo took a healthy $1.3m (£1.2m) in the UK and Ireland but has not submitted it to Bafta.

Kazoo will likewise launch Stitch Head in the UK and Ireland next year. Briarcliff Entertainment released it in US for Halloween, grossing $4.6m. Steve Hudson directs the Germany-­Luxembourg-India-UK co-­production, which tells the story of the titular creation of a monster-­creating mad scientist. Asa Butterfield, Joel Fry and Rob Brydon lead the voice cast.

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