Before the 2001 film year, it had always been a subject of debate in years prior as to whether the Academy Awards should create a category for animated features. That finally came to fruition with an uptick in the amount of animated movies that were released annually. Prior to the category being established, several animated films would occasionally win special prizes. Such films included “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937 (for which Walt Disney received a normal-sized Oscar and seven miniature ones), “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 1988 (along with Oscars for Film Editing, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects) and “Toy Story” in 1995. “Beauty and the Beast” also managed a major feat in 1991 when it became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, eventually losing to “The Silence of Lambs.” Tour our photo gallery below to see every Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, from “Shrek” to the most recent. Gallery updated March 2023.
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‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ (2022)
Image Credit: Netflix Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro reimagined the classic Disney fairy tale for more adults audiences and dominated the entire awards season. This marked Netflix’s first-ever victory in the animation feature category.
2022 Best Animated Feature nominees:
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”
“Minions: The Rise of Gru”
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”
“Turning Red” -
‘Encanto’ (2021)
Image Credit: Disney A Colombian teenage girl has to face the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers.
2021 Best Animated Feature nominees:
“Encanto”
“Flee”
“Luca”
“The Mitchells vs. the Machines”
“Raya and the Last Dragon” -
‘Soul’ (2020)
Image Credit: Pixar Following the unexpected death of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), the popular music teacher seeks to reunite his soul and his body after they are accidentally separated.
2020 Best Animated Feature nominees:
“Onward”
“Over the Moon”
“A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”
“Soul”
“Wolfwalkers” -
‘Toy Story 4’ (2019)
Image Credit: Disney/Pixar When a new toy called “Forky” joins Woody and the gang, a road trip alongside old and new friends reveals how big the world can be for a toy.
2019 Best Animated Feature nominees:
“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”
“I Lost My Body”
“Klaus”
“Missing Link”
“Toy Story 4” -
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Teen Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man of his reality, crossing his path with five counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.
2018 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Incredibles 2”
“Isle of Dogs”
“Mirai”
“Ralph Breaks the Internet”
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” -
‘Coco’ (2017)
Image Credit: Pixar A boy who aspires to be a musician against his family’s wishes visits the Land of the Dead to get the blessing of his great-great-grandfather.
2017 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Coco”
“Ferdinand”
“Loving Vincent”
“The Boss Baby”
“The Breadwinner” -
‘Zootopia’ (2016)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock In a world populated by animals, opposing species must find a way to work together to solve a crime in this Disney film.
2016 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Moana”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“The Red Turtle”
“Zootopia” -
‘Inside Out’ (2015)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock The Pixar movie looked inside the mind of an eleven-year-old girl and how her emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust – cope when her family is suddenly uprooted from Minnesota to San Francisco.
2015 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Anomalisa” – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
“Boy and the World” – Alê Abreu
“Inside Out” – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
“Shaun the Sheep Movie” – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
“When Marnie Was There” – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura -
‘Big Hero 6’ (2014)
Image Credit: REX/Shutterstock A boy and his huge, inflatable robot friend develop a distinctive bond as they work with a group of friends to develop a gang of technological heroes.
2014 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Big Hero 6” – Dan Hall, Chris Williams and Ron Conli
“The Boxtrolls” – Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight
“How to Train Your Dragon 2” – Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold
“Song of the Sea” – Tomm Moore and Paul Young
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” – Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura -
‘Frozen’ (2013)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock When Queen Elsa accidentally uses her magic abilities to cast her homeland into an eternal winter, she flees the kingdom and her sister, Anna, embarks on a journey to bring Elsa back home and reverse the wintery curse. The film also won the Best Original Song prize for “Let it Go.”
2013 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“The Croods” – Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson
“Despicable Me 2” – Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri
“Ernest & Celestine” – Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
“Frozen” – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho
“The Wind Rises” – Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki -
‘Brave’ (2012)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Princess Merida is set on following her own path in life instead of the customs of her kingdom. In doing so, she must rely on her fearlessness and her skills as an archer in order reverse a horrible cure.
2012 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Brave” – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
“Frankenweenie” – Tim Burton
“ParaNorman” – Sam Fell and Chris Butler
“The Pirates! Band of Misfits” – Peter Lord
“Wreck-It Ralph” – Rich Moore -
‘Rango’ (2011)
Image Credit: Blind/REX/Shutterstock When the town of Dirt is in need of a new sheriff, an ordinary chameleon named Rango ends up taking the job to help protect the town from the ruthless Rattlesnake Jake.
2011 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“A Cat in Paris” – Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
“Chico & Rita” – Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
“Kung Fu Panda 2” – Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Puss in Boots” – Chris Miller
“Rango” – Gore Verbinski -
‘Toy Story 3’ (2010)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock All of Andy’s toys must deal with the fact that their owner is all grown up and heading out to college as they go on a crazy and sometimes frightening adventure in trying to find a new home. The film also scored a nomination for Best Picture and won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
2010 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“How to Train Your Dragon” – Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” – Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” – Lee Unkrich -
‘Up’ (2009)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock When a widower is facing eviction from his lifelong home, he attaches an enormous amount of balloons to his house to make it fly off into the sky. He unwittingly also takes an ambitious boy scout along with him on the journey. The film also won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Michael Giacchino and became the first animated film since “Beauty and the Beast” to score a Best Picture nomination.
2009 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Coraline” – Henry Selick
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” – Wes Anderson
“The Princess and the Frog” – John Musker and Ron Clements
“The Secret of Kells” – Tomm Moore
“Up” – Pete Docter -
‘Wall-E’ (2008)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock After all of humanity has been evacuated from Earth due to being overun by garbage, a trash collecting robot spends hundreds of years clearing the trash and collecting knick-knacks. As WALL-E is the only working robot left, he experiences great loneliness until he meets a visiting robot named EVE. As the two connect, they embark on a journey that may end up saving all of humanity. “WALL-E” earned five additional nominations including Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score.
2008 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Bolt” – Chris Williams and Byron Howard
“Kung Fu Panda” – John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
“WALL-E” – Andrew Stanton -
‘Ratatouille’ (2007)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Remy, a rat in Paris with a sophisticated palette, gets a chance to realize his dream of becoming a chef by working through Linguini, a clumsy mop boy employed at a world famous restaurant. The film received four additional Oscar nominations including Best Original Screenplay and Original Score.
2007 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Persepolis” – Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
“Ratatouille” – Brad Bird
“Surf’s Up” – Ash Brannon and Chris Buck -
‘Happy Feet’ (2006)
Image Credit: Warner Bros./REX/Shutterstock In the realm of the Emporer Penguins, males sing in order to find their mates. But when newborn baby Mumble realizes he’s a terrible singer, he makes up for it with his abilities as a dancer and must conquer the prejudice of others to find acceptance.
2006 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Cars” – John Lasseter
“Happy Feet” – George Miller
“Monster House” – Gil Kenan -
‘Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ (2005)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Wallace and his trusted companion Gromit are on the hunt to discover who or what is sabotaging all the prize-winning gardens in their village and the answer is bigger than they could have ever imagined. This was Park’s fourth career Oscar after winning three in the Best Animated Short category: “Creature Comforts” (1990), “The Wrong Trousers” (1993) and “A Close Shave” (1995).
2005 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Howl’s Moving Castle” – Hayao Miyazaki
“Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” – Mike Johnson and Tim Burton
“Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” – Nick Park and Steve Box -
‘The Incredibles’ (2004)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock After being forced to live in secret for several years, a family of superheroes comes out of retirement to try and save the world and their kind. The garnered additional nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Sound Mixing and won the prize for Sound Editing.
2004 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“The Incredibles” – Brad Bird
“Shark Tale” – Bill Damaschke
“Shrek 2” – Andrew Adamson -
‘Finding Nemo’ (2003)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock A young clown fish gets separated from his over-protective and neurotic father (Albert Brooks). The father then sets out to search for his son with some unexpected help from a blue fish with a short-term memory problem (Ellen Degeneres). The film earned three additional nominations: Original Screenplay, Original Score and Sound Editing.
2003 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Brother Bear” – Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker
“Finding Nemo” – Andrew Stanton
“The Triplets of Belleville” – Sylvain Chomet -
‘Spirited Away’ (2002)
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli/REX/Shutterstock A daughter and her parents are moving to the suburbs and stops in what looks like an abandoned village. The village turns out to be filled with spirits and magical entities that leads to the parents being turned into pigs. Now the daughter must work for the evil witch that rules the village and find a way to reverse the curse put upon her parents. Miyazaki would go on to receive an Honorary Oscar for his career achievements in 2014.
2002 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Ice Age” – Chris Wedge
“Lilo & Stitch” – Chris Sanders
“Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” – Jeffrey Katzenberg
“Spirited Away” – Hayao Miyazaki
“Treasure Planet” – Ron Clements -
‘Shrek’ (2001)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock The first time this category was awarded, the prize went to this take on fairy tales. A cranky ogre agrees to help rescue a princess for a villainous lord in order to get a bunch of magical creatures out of his swamp. “Shrek” also scored a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
2001 Best Animated Feature Nominees:
“Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” – Steve Oedekerk and John A. Davis
“Monsters, Inc.” – Pete Docter and John Lasseter
“Shrek” – Aron Warner -
More Oscar Photo Galleries
Image Credit: AP/REX/Shutterstock Every Oscar winner for Best Picture
Every Oscar winner for Best Director
Every Oscar winner for Best Actor
Every Oscar winner for Best Actress
Every Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor
Every Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress
Musicals that won Best Picture
Westerns that won Best Picture
Tom O’Neil: My Top 25 Oscar Best Picture Winners of All Time
