1.0 ineligible for the Oscars

[schismatics]

I would love to see Rebuild 1.0 win an Oscar. Then both Matt Greenfield and Hideaki Anno could go up to collect the award, neither knowing who the other one is, suddenly a fight breaks out over who deserves the award more and Tiffany Grant hits Anno with a chair.

My two cents.

heh.

I'm gunna keep up my hopes for 2.0 in that case.

[carla]

i'm guessing from the previous posts that FUNI's release schedule came past the deadline for the oscars? (i can't read the article right now because i'm at work and ANN is blocked )

anyway, i have very conflicting reactions in me right now

on the one hand, i think going by quality, 1.0 could've been considered, had it made the deadline. we may think it's "more of the same" but the academy members haven't necessarily seen the series. i've been told that from the viewpoint of a complete n00b, rebuild can be rather impressive, and we know the story's good. if we're talking overall quality, i think EVA could give miyazaki a good run for his money, at least.

on the other hand, even if 1.0 had made the deadline, most probable outcome is: ignored by the academy. anime in general doesn't have a good history of making it into the ballot. isn't ghibli distributed by disney or something? that would explain why miyazaki movies have greater success. anno and FUNI, from what i hear, make a good team as far as distribution is concerned, but they'll never have the weight miyazaki can have, having "disney's seal of approval." i don't put much stock in the academy, i think they're notoriously biased.

on the other other hand (LOL), if 1.0 had made it to the nominees list, i'd be all "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THIS IS THE MOST AWESOMEST NEWS EVARR OMFG" anyway let's be real here, regardless of how much the academy's opinion isn't really the greatest measure of a movie's worth, the recognition is always nice.

i, for one, am keeping my fingers crossed for the other rebuild movies.

I would love to see Rebuild 1.0 win an Oscar. Then both Matt Greenfield and Hideaki Anno could go up to collect the award, neither knowing who the other one is, suddenly a fight breaks out over who deserves the award more and Tiffany Grant hits Anno with a chair.

oh my god. this absolutely has to happen.

[Otakon 08 Ikari]

I wish it could win, that would indeed be cool. I still think its a winner.

[Axell]

I just want Anno to rip Greenfiled's spine out of his body and scream "Brutality!"

or more appropriately something like "Burutarichi!"...

or even more appropriately, they could reenact episode 19 zeruel vs 01 and then Anno starts munching on Greenfield. That would probably get a standing ovation.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Well, 1.0 did win other 'Best Animated Movie' awards (along with 'Best Director', if I remember correctly), so it wouldn't be surprising that, if eligible, it would win a category or two. Don't ask me for sauce; dig if you must.

Can't find the sauce myself but this is true, I remember hearing that.

I agree it would at least win some kind of category. I mean hell, my stepsister who's not really into anime besides Miyazaki stuff and a few other things thought 1.0 was interesting and enjoyed it (we saw the San Fran dub showing last month), and she hasn't seen Eva before that.

[Joseph the PRPD]

Only a few theaters here and there. 1.0 isn't even a standalone film also.

That argument doesn't work. See Lord of the Rings winning awards.

I meant to edit my post earlier and remove "1.0 isn't even a standalone film" when I remembered other film series winning awards.

[Eva 04]

Does it even matter?Even if Eva was eligible,how many people would actually nominate it?Eva isnt as popular here as it is in Japan so.You need like the whole Eva fanbase and some Eva fans from Japan to get it nomianted I think.Besides,Eva doesnt need a lousy award to prove how great it is.

[toe mash]

Despite absolutely loving eva, I cant help but feel like rebuild 1.0 wouldn't even be that deserving of an oscar.. I mean, episodes 1-6 really really don't convey the whole message of the series - the thing that really makes eva special. I haven't watched many anime films, but I'm sure that there are films that are better when compared solely to 1.0.

[MugwumpHasNoLiver]

Don;t get me wrong, 1.0 was good, but not for the same reasons that made the original a masterpiece. But if 3.0 comes anywhere near close to the emotional and artistic fervor of the last few episodes of Eva, I can totally see it winning an Oscar. Don't forget that Eva is mostly build-up; build-up that gets even better after we see the pay-off. If Anno's doing his job right, 3.0 should make 1.0 and 2.0 masterpieces in retrospect.

I would love to see Rebuild 1.0 win an Oscar. Then both Matt Greenfield and Hideaki Anno could go up to collect the award, neither knowing who the other one is, suddenly a fight breaks out over who deserves the award more and Tiffany Grant hits Anno with a chair.

This made my day.

[Xard]

Don;t get me wrong, 1.0 was good, but not for the same reasons that made the original a masterpiece. But if 3.0 comes anywhere near close to the emotional and artistic fervor of the last few episodes of Eva, I can totally see it winning an Oscar. Don't forget that Eva is mostly build-up; build-up that gets even better after we see the pay-off. If Anno's doing his job right, 3.0 should make 1.0 and 2.0 masterpieces in retrospect.

to me 2.0 is already masterpiece action flick

great film

[NAveryW]

Come on, let's be real. As a diehard Eva fan even I accept this truth but Evangelion 1.0 is nowhere near good enough to even be a Best Animation Film contender.

Yeah, Eva just can't compare with high-quality fare such as Shark Tale and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

[icomeanon4]

The main problem with Eva in terms of Oscar winability is that it's just nowhere near mainstream enough to have a decent shot. Generally, 1.0 didn't do all that well with the American film critics that did see it. That's probably because they were expecting something along the lines of Ghost in the Shell or Akira, but still.

As for anyone who thinks that its ineligibility is Funimation's fault, you're wrong. Funimation wasn't able to acquire the license until December 2008, leaving them several months late for this year's Oscars already. I think the blame probably lies with Khara on this one.

The time of release requirement probably works to anime's disadvantage as far as Oscars go, but we shouldn't really worry about it because I don't think any anime movies besides Miyazaki's would even have a shot at winning anything in the Oscars. Americans at large just don't like anime that much, so any anime that's in it to win really has to both cross the cultural divide and appeal to adults. Seeing as Evangelion mostly appeals to teenagers who are already anime fans, who are we kidding in thinking that it would be nominated?

[wintermute]

Regardless of how good the sequels are, I think this was the only film in the series that could have possibly made the cut. What I mean is, I seriously doubt Academy voters' willingness to strongly consider the sequels to some movie they've never even heard of in the future, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the first film and the potential greatness (or so we hope) of the sequels to follow.

Let's just be thankful if circumstances even allow 5 movies to be nominated at all this year. Otherwise, Ponyo isn't exactly a lock for a nomination in a small group of only 3 movies. Despite Spirited Away's success in 2002, I doubt that voters will be too excited to fall in line behind critics pushing them to support a film that none of their colleagues or friends had any hand in making, and one that was a quietly successful but not very impressive moneymaker.

The big studios had enough of little indies and foreign films stealing their thunder at the Oscars. So they finally got what they wanted this year and if the Academy doesn't want to piss them off or lose even more television viewers, they've got to reward the films that that those studios produced and that most of their potential television audience will be familiar with, even when it comes to this category. This is good news for Up (despite already being a great movie, imho), not so good for Ponyo, and pretty much a lockout for films like Evangelion.

[toe mash]

If Anno's doing his job right, 3.0 should make 1.0 and 2.0 masterpieces in retrospect.

Exactly. It's like after watching the whole series and EoE you see all of the episodes in a very different light (although ep. 7 is "unsalvagable" ( ) and it just gets better the second time around. Maybe 3.0 will really raise the bar.

[master_lloyd]

I'm with wintermute and some of the others on this. So far 1.0 is the only rebuild movie that's effectively captured some of the emotional impact that's synonymous with Eva. I mean as epic as the ending of 2.0 was, it seemed kind of knockabout compared to the drama and sense of struggle that came from 1.0's Angel of Doom finale.

But to be honest, I think it's a testament to how good the movies are to be even be uttered in the same breath as Oscars, I know the academy isn't what it was, but at least it shows word is getting out there. It seems we are not alone...

I know people by now have used that whole "You are (not) alone" joke so many times it's almost meaningless, but this one was my first I swear!!!

[wintermute]

Up is the only sure-thing for a nomination.

Assuming that there are even 5 films nominated, The Princess and the Frog will probably get a nod, as the Academy will want to reward Disney for their efforts to make something so "traditional" without any/so much of the CGI that goes into so many animated films. 9 is a strong contender for a nomination for technical reasons alone (not to mention the original short film getting a nomination in a different category back in 2005). This leaves Coraline, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Ponyo left to compete for the last 2 spots, and I don't think that there's necessarily going to be any feeling that only one stop-motion film "should" be nominated, they very well might both be.

But it's been a busy year and studios will be campaigning heavily for these and others, it's pretty likely that some worthy films will get left out in the cold, especially if the minimum of eligible films isn't met and only 3 films can be nominated.

[chee]

If anyone thinks the Academy will be open-minded enough to consider an anime that isn't Miyazaki, they're dreaming.

[Joseph the PRPD]

If anyone thinks the Academy will be open-minded enough to consider an anime that isn't Miyazaki, they're dreaming.

This.

[wintermute]

It'll happen someday. I strongly hoped it would happen with Paprika but either that film ran into eligibility issues or the producers of Surf's Up had powerful friends and/or enough naked photos of the voters' loved ones to win the third nomination instead.

[Guyver Spawn]

I love the movie as the next guy but it's no oscar winner movie. Besides Up would win anyways like most of Pixars movies.