As probably like 99% of you know that Up was nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture. And not to offend Pixar or anything, but the only reason it was nominated is because they raised the amount of nominees to 10. I’m not saying I disliked UP or ANYTHING but animated films are underrated a lot at some award ceremonies. Expect the Annie Awards. 
Still, I think Toy Story 3 will be nominated for next year’s best picture award because everyone knows that the Toy Story films are good. Right?..
Another pro is that they’re are going to do ten nominations next year!
But… If Toy Story 3 isn’t nominated for Best Picture, will it have much of chance at Best Animated? A sequel has never won the award, and one studio hasn’t received the award so many times before. If Toy Story 3 isn’t nominated for Best Picture, it’s biggest competitor in the Best Animated Feature category would be How To Train Your Dragon, which has received overwhelmingly positive reweiws. 
Please share your thoughts on the subject.
I hope in the bottom of my soul that Toy Story 3 would whoop anything DWSKG makes, but I fear How to Train your Dragon will win in the end. 
It’s pretty clear that it won’t be nominated for Best Picture. It’s a sequel, it’s animated, and it’s “childish” (in concept). It was a miracle that Up got nominated, and really the only reason it did was because of the Married Life montage. Plus, early reviewers have claimed that TS3 is more like Pixar’s earlier efforts (more comedic, less emotional for the most part).
Best Animated Feature, however, is a likely win. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of competition; however, I do think there’s a chance that How to Train Your Dragon will be able to beat it out. I can’t say for sure until TS3 is out, though.
That would be nice, but the chances are slim
Every one loves Toy Story. I have never met one person that said it wasn’t good.
I doubt it is going to get the Best Picture Award (same reasons stated by Bryko614) but I have a great feeling it is going to get to get Best Animated Feature. Not only is there going to be little competition but it is going to be a great film.
toy story 2 won a golden globe.
I do think it’s a tad early to be deciding whether TS3 will be nominated, since none of us have seen it, but just because sequels haven’t won before or it’s supposedly not emotional enough are not reasons to count TS3 out of the running.
Pixar made history last year with Up, and there’s no reason for them not to do it again, whether it be with Best Picture of Best Animated Feature. We all know, love, and trust Pixar to give us a great movie, and since they’ve made history so many times already, I have faith in them to do it again.
One more side note on the emotional thing - I remember that every review so far has said that we’ll need tissues for the last 30 mins, so I am expecting another emotional train ride in the movie. Whether it will be as gorgeous as Married Life or exceptional in another way, we’ll just have to wait and find out.
In 1999 the top ten movies of the year according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were Toy Story 2 among others. SInce there were only five nominees in 1999, Toy Story 2 didn’t make the final cut. It did in fact win the 1999 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy, as WoodBuzz101 has already stated.
First off - I really hope that there are enough animated features released this year that we get to have 5 nominees again - that was fun! I figure TS3 and How to Train Your Dragon are both in at this point. But I don’t know what other potential Animated Feature nominees are lurking on the horizon.
As for Best Picture - there are a lot of variables at work. First off, how many “serious” Oscar-bait movies will be in the mix? There were a few things last year - including Invictus, Nine (the musical), and Lovely Bones - that had big Oscar buzz until they didn’t live up to expectations and dropped out of contention. Does TS3 get hurt for being a sequel - or does it get a boost because it’s a way to make up for not recognizing the now-classic TS & TS2? I don’t know what the real demographics are, but I’m always reading in Oscar discussions that the Academy is made up of a bunch of Old Fogeys - I think that helped Up, with its elderly protagonist, and very human story, that appealed even to people who don’t otherwise care about animation. Also, after excluding Ratatouille and Wall-E, once they went to 10 nominees, there was no way they could possibly come up with an excuse for not nominating Pixar this time - but will they think, “OK, now we’ve finally acknowledged Pixar in the BP category, we don’t need to do that every year.”
I think the biggest question is, “What’s the competition?” and we’re not going to know that for quite a while. It’s always fun to speculate, though.
As much as I love the Toy Story series and have extremely high hopes for Toy Story 3, I also extremely doubt that it will be win or even be nominated next years Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Like you said, Toy Story 3 is a sequel. It’s very rare that a sequel will win an Academy Award, no matter how good a film Toy Story 3 will inevitably be. If anything, they’ll most likely end up choosing something like How To Train Your Dragon (which I am positive Dreamworks will be pushing for). I’m sure this is something Lee Unkrich must have thought about one time or another, but PIXAR is not in the business to win awards. They’re in there to make good films.
Now, this is not my decision, but just what I think the Academy will do based on previous history. Hell, if it was up to me I’d get rid of the BAF Award all together and simply rename it “Pixar’s Annual” and give to them every year.
Oh, I think TS3 will definitely be nominated for Best Animated Feature - I can’t imagine that not happening. It’s possible that TS3 might not win Best Animated Feature, if there’s a feeling that, “Hey, Pixar’s won this enough recently,” and TS3 strikes the voters too much like “been there, done that.” But I would be stunned if it didn’t get nominated for Animated Feature.
The real debate is whether it could get an overall Best Picture nomination, competing against the live-action films, as Up did last year. If I had to bet a nickel right this minute, I would say it misses out on the Best Picture nomination, but it’s way too early to make a good guess.
(Oh, and if I were Dreamworks, I would definitely be putting all my might behind an Animated Feature campaign for HTTYD.)
I doubt it’s going to get the Best Picture nomination, but then again I do like to take the pessimistic viewpoint and then be pleasantly surprised if I am proven wrong.
I guess the main reason why I don’t think it’ll get a Best Picture nomination is not to do with it being a sequel (though this also isn’t going to work in its favour) but because, as others have said, it seems like it’s going to be quite a bit more light-hearted than Up, and I can’t see Toy Story 3 having some deep, serious message in the same way that Up did (though this is purely speculation, obviously having not seen the film yet).
That’s not to say I wouldn’t be pleased if it did get the nomination- I’d just be surprised.
As for Best Animated Feature, it’ll definitely get the nomination, but winning it is an entirely different matter.
Up didn’t go home epty handed it won best animated movie on nicks kca’s.
Actually, now that I think of it, Toy Story 3 might possibly win Best Animated Feature Award after all. While Toy Story did win a Special Achievement oscar, neither film was ever nominated for a Best Animated Feature award, since that award hadn’t been invented by the time TS2 came out. So, maybe like Lord Of The Rings, they’ll just give it the Oscar as a way of commending the entire series.
But on the flipside, Pixar Builder, it might not win because Toy Story and its sequel won that Special Achievement Oscar. Because of that, maybe the voters might think that Toy Story has already been recognised.
Either way, it’s really difficult to tell which way it’s going to swing.
I know it cant be decided yet but I reckon it wil because it will leave some voiewers in tears and emotion.
Y’know… I’ve been reading some of the Wondercon reactions (no spoilers), and every time I see the word “Kleenex,” it makes TS3’s Oscar chances seem more likely. I still think the possible Best Pic nomination hinges on the competition, and how much room there is for “non-traditional” nominees to slip in among the usual serious/adult live action fare.
I’d say it’s certain that TS3 will get nominated for Best Animated Picture. There tend to be five nominees for that nowadays, if I recall correctly, and I’d say those will probably be TS3, How to Train Your Dragon, and three more that don’t really stand a chance at actually winning the thing. The winner will be between those two films, and it could go either way at present.
As for Best Picture, it’s really too early to tell if TS3 will get nominated. There are way too many variables, not least of which is that most of the Oscar bait films tend to come out in the second half of the year. Still, since I can’t think of a blockbuster likely to get nominated (unlike the most recent Oscars, where Avatar filled that niche), that leaves TS3 in with a fair chance at being the token mainstream film.
The number of nominees in the Best Animated Feature category depends on how many eligible films were released during the year. I believe the magic number is 16. Fewer than 16 animated features released that year, and there are only 3 nominees; 16 or more and there are 5.
Last year, there were about 20 eligible films, so we got 5 nominees. I don’t know how the schedule looks this year for animation.
It could happen.
Keep in mind, that Toy Story 2 won the 1999 Golden Globe for Best Picture (Musical/Comedy).