Frozen has been awarded the Academy Award For Best Animated Feature at the 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. The nominees in the Best Animated Feature category were The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest & Celestine, Frozen, and The Wind Rises.The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world’s first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures — and their outlook is changed forever.The Croods was written and directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman and was produced by Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell.In Despicable Me 2, Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super criminal.Despicable Me 2 was directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, from a screenplay by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. The film stars Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Elsie Fisher, Dana Gaier, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, and Ken Jeong. It was produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy.Ernest & Celestine is a Franco-Belgian film that tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest, and a young mouse named Celestine.Ernest & Celestine was directed by Stรฉphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner, from a screenplay by Daniel Pennac. The film stars Lambert Wilson and Pauline Brunner and was produced by Didier Brunner, Henri Magalon, and Vincent Tavier.In Frozen, Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna’s sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.Frozen was written and directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee and is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Snow Queen. The film stars Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad and Santino Fontana, and was produced by Peter Del Vecho.In The Wind Rises, Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world’s most innovative and accomplished airplane designers. The film chronicles much of his life, depicting key historical events, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan’s plunge into war. Jiro meets and falls in love with Nahoko, and grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo.The Wind Rises is the final film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and is based on his fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, published in Japan under the same title (Kaze Tachinu). The film stars Hideaki Anno, Miori Takimoto, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masahiko Nishimura, Steve Alpert, Morio Kazama, Keiko Takeshita, Mirai Shida, Jun Kunimura, Shinobu Otake and Nomura Mansai, and was produced by Toshio Suzuki.
