Just watched this video from Mother's Basement, a youtube channel whose owner discusses anime, film and video games.
The Academy, being an ethnocentric American institution, has always preferred to reward its own than artists and art from other countries. This is caused not only by money and marketing, but by the fact that animation isn't taken seriously by the academy and its members. This was exacerbated further this year with the opening up of the Best Animated Feature category to all members of the Academy, as opposed to being only open to a smaller group of animation specialists, as it was in previous years. This is why you get a mediocre film like Boss Baby nominated, but not a great film like A Silent Voice. Though even with the previous setup of members dedicated to the animation category, lots of great films would have gotten snubbed anyway.
I wish it would change, but I don't think it will anytime soon. This feels like the kind of thing that requires several generational shifts for institutional change to occur.
The Academy, being an ethnocentric American institution, has always preferred to reward its own than artists and art from other countries. This is caused not only by money and marketing, but by the fact that animation isn't taken seriously by the academy and its members. This was exacerbated further this year with the opening up of the Best Animated Feature category to all members of the Academy, as opposed to being only open to a smaller group of animation specialists, as it was in previous years. This is why you get a mediocre film like Boss Baby nominated, but not a great film like A Silent Voice. Though even with the previous setup of members dedicated to the animation category, lots of great films would have gotten snubbed anyway.
I wish it would change, but I don't think it will anytime soon. This feels like the kind of thing that requires several generational shifts for institutional change to occur.