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We had two films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Our Little SisterOur_Little_Sister

Hirokazu Koreeda is one of Japan’s most respected directors and he’s been no stranger to critical acclaim. His Like Father, Like Son was a nominee for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (it won that festival’s Jury Prize from the ecumenical jury). I Wish received incredibly positive reviews. Still Walking is one of the rare films to attain a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes (a rating it still holds today). Nobody Knows was also a Palme d’Or nominee. All in all, he’s been nominated multiple times for the Palme d’Or in his multi-year 25-year career.

Our Little Sister is his latest American film and one that might just get Koreeda into the shortlist for the Oscars. If Japan chooses him. The film is about three sisters who adopt their half-sister after their estranged father’s sudden death. The premise sounds like something Academy voters who are interested in family dramas will get into.

To date (from my records back to the late 1990s), Nobody Knows was the only one of the director’s films to be submitted to the Academy’s Best Foreign Language Film competition. It’s possible this will be his second. The film is currently sitting with a 93% fresh rating, which is solid. Whether it can actually get the nomination or not is a big mystery at this juncture.

The Secret Life of Pets

In 2010, Illumination Entertainment delivered unto the public one of the highest grossing animated films in history. Despicable Me was such a success that a sequel was made for it in 2013. Aside from those two films, the animation house has produced three other films, with this being their overall sixth. A seventh is slated for release later this year: (Sing).

The story of two dogs fighting over a single owner and going on an amazing journey while their master’s away at work opened north of $100 million at the box office, the biggest opening for an original animated film in U.S. history. Those impressive numbers come after a smashing advertising effort that started with the cutest teaser trailer released in many years. This is also the production company’s best critical performance since their first film. The problem is that lack of consistency may explain why the company is struggling at the Oscars.

Despicable Me was nominated for six Annie Awards (the animation industry’s equivalent of the Oscars), but failed to pick up an elusive Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars, a surprise considering the films critical and box office success. Their second film, Hop, earned a single Annie Award nomination for Character Animation and certainly no Oscar consideration. The Lorax was their next entry, but it came up empty-handed with all awards groups, including the Annies.

The sequel to Despicable Me, simply titled Despicable Me 2 was not only the first of their productions to earn a Best Animated Feature nomination, it also managed a second for its original song “Happy,” neither of which it won. It fared even better with the Annie Awards scoring eleven nominations, but won nothing.

Last year, the spin-off flick Minions, following the little yellow pill-like critters Despicable Me‘s Gru commands, earned neither Annie nomination nor Oscar nomination. With such an anemic history, is it possible that this production house will suffer the same fate as Blue Sky, the group that puts out the Ice Age films? Or will this huge box office success finally get it considered at the Oscars. Between this and Sing, the latter seems more like the kind of inspirational dramatic comedy the Academy loves, but you can’t argue with success.

Competition is fierce for the Best Animated Feature category this year and I suspect with three Disney/Pixar productions in the race as well as the latest from Laika and GKids, the crowded field could generate some considerable snubs, something this film won’t benefit from.

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