Why do "animated" movies have their own category at the Oscars? Shouldn't scifi..comedy...horror all have their categories since, like Animated movies, they could get nominated, but seriously, will never win.
The reason for the animated category was political. Back around 1991 or 1992, the Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture. This raised a stink like you wouldn't believe from actors unions and the like, who were fearful of the precedent. After all, who needs to hire flesh and blood actors if all you need are a few people who know how to draw and computer animate, and some people with good voices to read dialogue and sing?
It was a bit of a BS argument, but one that was mentioned a lot. I remember the night of the Oscar telecast and host Billy Crystal made a fairly pointed joke about this fact during his opening song-and-dance which got pretty big applause.
I don't think the animated category was started immediately, but I do believe it was started when the signs began to emerge that there were other animated films (Shrek comes to mind) that had potential for Best Picture nominations.
There was also the school of thought (such supports Robert's comment) that animated films didn't really stand a chance in the category anyway. The year Shrek won Best Animated Feature it would have been up against A Beautiful Mind, Fellowship of the Ring, Moulin Rouge in Best Picture ... it didn't stand a chance. The film that beat Beauty and the Beast was Silence of the Lambs, for frak's sake!
So the question is why not make similar categories for genres? I don't think the filmmakers want that. According to the Wikipedia article on the Animated Feature category (yeah I know it's Wikipedia but I remember reading this elsewhere) the people behind Wall-E were mad that their film -- which a lot of critics felt deserved not only to be nominated but to win Best Picture that year -- was relegated to Best Animated Feature instead. This year, Up took advantage of the 10-nominee Best Picture field but no one expected it to win and it's generally seen as a fluke nomination. Of course it won Animated Feature hands down.
So if the Academy Awards fragmented the genres, OK so it might have meant a chance for Star Trek or District 9 or Avatar to win one. But it still would have been ghettoizing, and it might have reduced their chances of a Best Picture nomination. Also, what is the definition of comedy? Inglourious Basterds is as much a comedy as it is a war film. A film like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (the Kenneth Branaugh version) -- would it go into Drama? Horror? You could have some films appear in multiple categories, really lessening the impact.
The fact remains, that thanks to the 10-picture category, we had no less than THREE SF/F films nominated: Up, Avatar and District 9. So what if the genre didn't win? That's still a remarkable achievement.
Alex
