Seven Nominations for Pixar at the Oscars

And the nominees are…
Today, Oscars nominations were announced with WALL•E recieving a total of 6 nominations plus one for Presto! The categories are as follows:

Best animated feature film of the year
* “Bolt” (Walt Disney), Chris Williams and Byron Howard
* “Kung Fu Panda” (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount), John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
* “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
* “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
* “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel

Achievement in sound editing
* "WALL-E" (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood

Achievement in sound mixing
* “WALL-E” (Walt Disney),Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt

Original screenplay
* “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

And Presto:
Best animated short film
* “La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
* “Lavatory – Lovestory” A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
* “Oktapodi” (Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
* “Presto” (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
* “This Way Up”, A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

I think WALL•E’s a shoe-in for Animated feature and has big promise in the sound and music categories, I also really hope it wins Best screenplay! In the shorts department, Presto is a big contendor although Oktapodi was great too.

I am extremely proud of WALL•E’s 6 nominations (the most ever for an animated film aside from Beauty and the Beast’s 6), even though it got snubbed from Best Picture, you have to be greatful that the Academy is recognizing this risky, bold and highly entertaining masterpiece!

Congratulations, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Ben Burtt, Thomas Newman, Doug Sweetland and everyone at Pixar!

View the full list of nominees here. The winners for 81st Annual Academy Awards will be announced February 22nd, 2009 live from the Kodak Theatre on ABC.