The Oscar Comes Home to Emeryville

The 85th Academy Awards are officially history, but will definitely not be forgotten anytime soon. I mean, come on, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe singing and dancing on a stage together? How exactly do you top that?

It was also an exciting night for Pixar, as the studio's 13th feature film Brave won them their 7th Oscar for Best Animated Feature, which just so happens to mark the 30th golden statuette the studio has ever won.

Be sure to visit this link and watch short yet exciting video of the trophy coming home to the studio in Emeryville and the crew celebrating in Pixar's giant atrium.

Congratulations Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews, Katherine Sarafian and the rest of the team!

Brave Claims the Golden Statuette

Tonight was an exciting night. At the Oscars this year, I think we had the finest selection of Best Animated Feature nominees that we've had in a long, long time. So naming one of these the best was no easy task.

My goodness. Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates!, Wreck-It Ralph, and finally Brave. All absolutely amazing films. Brave had won the BAFTA and Golden Globe, but Ralph won the Annie, so ultimately the battle was between these two.

Pixar ended up walking away with the prize and directors Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews (who, unsurprisingly, wore a kilt) came up to receive the award. Many people argued that Ralph should have won the Oscar, but personally I think both films were equally deserving - and at least Ralph won the Annie, and is still a superb and brilliant film.

Congratulations to the team at Pixar for their 7th ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and here's hoping they take home an 8th golden statuette next year for Monsters University!

Today's the Big Day...

With the Oscars just a couple of hours away, I thought it was a good time to have a look back at all the accolades that have been awarded to Pixar's thirteenth feature film, Brave, this awards season. The film is nominated for Best Animated Feature tonight, although it's got some pretty intense competition, including Disney's astounding Wreck-It Ralph, directed by Rich Moore.

Brave took home the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature earlier in the season, beating out Wreck-It Ralph, Frankenweenie, Rise of the Guardians, and Hotel Transylvania. Heaven knows why Hotel T was nominated and Laika's fantastic stop-motion flick ParaNorman wasn't. Last year was the first time that a Pixar film didn't win the BAF prize at the Globes, with Cars 2 having been beat by The Adventures of Tintin.

Pixar's 13th was also nominated for a grand total of 8 Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, although that award ended up going to Wreck-It Ralph. On the up side, the film was awarded honors for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production and Editorial in an Animated Feature Production, so Pixar did not go home empty handed that night.

At the BAFTAs, Brave once again took home a Best Animated Feature award, beating Frankenweenie and ParaNorman.

Brave has also claimed several other prizes, including honors for Outstanding Animation, Outstanding Animated Character, Outstanding Created Environment and Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation from the Visual Effects Society. Merida, Queen Elinor and the pesky Witch also granted the film an award for Best Animated Females from the Women Film Critics Circle.

Other awards the film has won include:

• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing from the Cinema Audio Society
• Best Edited Animated Feature Film from the American Cinema Editors
• Best Animated Female (Merida, voiced by Kelly Macdonald) from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Pixar's had quite the award season this year, and I'd be very pleased to see Brave win the studio a 7th Oscar for Best Animated Feature tonight. But even if it doesn't win, that won't change the fact that Pixar produced a beautiful film, with wonderful characters, gorgeous music, breathtaking visuals, and an amazing story, so I give my sincere congratulations to the talented crew behind Brave.