"Your Name" Anime Film Makes 89th Academy Awards Consideration List

Move over Pixar; It looks like you will have some competition this year when it comes to winning an Academy Award. While Finding Dory has been considered to be a shoo-in for Best Animated Feature this year, Funimation Films is now challenging that assumption. The company has just confirmed that a Japanese film titled Your Name has made the consideration list for this year's Oscars.

The wildly popular anime feature will compete to win one of five nomination spots for the 89th Academy Awards. Its qualifying run will begin on December 2nd in Los Angeles and end on the 8th at Laemmle Music Hall. General audiences will then be able to watch the critically acclaimed movie in early 2017.

If you are not familiar with Your Name, then you should know the anime feature is the highest-grossing film of 2016 in Japan. The film raked in more than $170 million at the box office since it debut in August. It is also the first anime feature outside of Studio Ghibli's control to gross more than $96 million at the Japanese box office. Your Name has already out-grossed the last two films from director Hayao Miyazaki: Ponyo and The Wind Rises. And, at the moment, Your Name is the 7th highest-grossing movie of all time in Japan.

"We're thrilled to have 'Your Name.' on the list of contenders for a Best Animated Feature nomination," said Gen Fukunaga, CEO and founder of Funimation. "It is a masterpiece of animation from director Makoto Shinkai and is definitely worthy of Oscar consideration. We look forward to releasing it in theaters in 2017."

Mike DuBoise, EVP and COO of Funimation, also commented on the film's success. "'Your Name.' offers stunning animation, rich characters and a storyline that will tear at your heart strings -- so it is no surprise it has been so well received by audiences. We're incredibly excited to bring this Oscar-worthy film from Makoto Shinkai to audiences across the U.S. and Canada."

When it comes to Your Name, you better be prepared to have your heartbroken. The gorgeous film is a slow, nostalgic love story between two star-crossed lovers. The film follows two high school students after they discover they spontaneously switch bodies. Rather than panic, the pair find a way to work out their supernatural exchanges and begin to fall for one another. But, when the phenomena comes to an abrupt halt, the would-be lovers learn how cruel both fate and time can truly be.