Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Wins Best Animated Oscar
Sunday marked the biggest night of the year for Hollywood, as the stars gathered to take part in the 2023 Academy Awards. The Oscars celebrate the best in film from the previous year, honoring work in nearly every category of filmmaking. Heading into this year's Academy Awards, some races were incredibly close. Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor, and several others could've gone either way, with viewers anxiously awaiting the opening of the envelopes to see who would win. Best Animated Feature was not one of those close calls. That award has been all but locked up for quite a while now, and there were no surprises on Sunday night.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, a stop-motion re-imagining of the classic tale from the legendary filmmaker behind Pan's Labyrinth, debuted on Netflix to rave reviews late last year and was instantly seen as the favorite to take home the award for Best Animated Feature. That lead only grew throughout awards season, as the Netflix film won the top animation prize at virtually every other awards show ahead of the Oscars. When it came time to hand out the Best Animated feature at the Oscars on Sunday, del Toro's acclaimed Pinocchio film took home gold.
This win for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was expected by the time the Oscars began, but it's still a monumental win for the filmmaker and the streaming service that funded his vision. Netflix is now the first streaming service to take home an award for Best Animated Feature, and del Toro can now add that Oscar to his Best Director and Best Picture awards, which he won for The Shape of Water.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio beat out some stiff competition for the Oscar this year, making 2023 one of the few times Disney or Pixar didn't take home the award. Pixar's Turning Red was nominated but came up short. Surprisingly, the biggest competition for Pinocchio came in the form of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Other nominees included Netflix's The Sea Beast and A24's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
Do you think the right animated film won the Oscar this year? Let us know in the comments!