3+3 Animation Films in the César Nominations 2024

Three engaging animation features vie for the 2024 César award nominations. Sébastien Laudenbach (The Girl Without Hands) gets his second César nomination in the animated comedy, co-directed with Chiara Malta, 'Chicken for Linda'.

The stop-motion animation feature 'No Dogs Or Italians Allowed' by Alain Ughetto (Jasmine) is nominated, getting another accolade after the European Film Awards nomination for Best European Animated Feature.

The sci-fi futurological animation 'Mars Express' by Jérémie Périn completes the nominees. None of the candidates have ever won a César for animation film before, so the race is quite open.

 The three César nominees for Best Animated Feature

• No Dogs Or Italians Allowed by Alain Ughetto
• Chicken For Linda! by Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach
• Mars Express by Jérémie Périn
  
  

In the short animation category, many festival hits (including the Cannes Palme d'Or for a short film '27' by Flóra Anna Buda, and the 2023 Oscar-nominated 'Ice Merchants' by João Gonzalez were left out of the nominations. It seems that the current trend in French co-production of short animated films did not resonate well with the César voters, who preferred mostly French-speaking films.

Two out of three nominated short animated films (by Charlie Belin and Denis Do) are longer than 30 minutes -in the TV special/feature format.

 The three César nominees for Best Animated Short

DRÔLES D'OISEAUX (Funny Birds) directed by Charlie Belin
10-year-old Ellie is fascinated by nature and birds, she spends her time reading about them. One day, a few miles from school, she goes onto a little island on the Loire River to take a bird book back to the library. It’s an island full of birds.

LA FÔRET DE MADEMOISELLE TANG (Τhe Forest of Miss Tang) directed by Denis Do
To leave or to stay? Director Denis Do takes us on an existential quest through the generations of a single family, shaken by 200 years of history in China.

ÉTÉ 96 directed by Mathilde Bédouet
Every summer, Paul’s family has a picnic on a small island that can be reached via a causeway at low tide. This year the tide takes them by surprise and they are forced to spend the night.

The other shortlisted nominees:

• 27 directed by Flóra Anna Buda
• LA GRANDE ARCHE directed by Camille Authouart
• CHRISTOPHER AT SEA directed by Tom CJ Brown
• ICE MERCHANTS directed by João Gonzalez
• MIRACASAS directed by Raphaëlle Stolz and Augusto Zanovello
• EL AFTER DEL MUNDO directed by Florentina Gonzalez
• LA SAISON POURPRE directed by Clémence Bouchereau
• SCALE directed by Joseph Pierce
• UN GENRE DE TESTAMENT directed by Stephen Vuillemin

2023 winners included 'My Sunny Maad' by Michaela Pavlátová (Best French Animation Feature) and 'Granny's Sexual Life' by the Slovenian director Urška Djukić and the French director Émilie Pigeard (more here)

The 49th César Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, will be held on 23 February 2024 at the Olympia in Paris.