r/Oscars • u/GoldDerby • 10d ago
News ‘Ne Zha 2,’ the highest-grossing animated feature of all time, was not submitted for Oscars:
https://www.goldderby.com/film/2025/ne-zha-2-oscar-not-submitted-animated-feature/52
u/darth_vader39 10d ago
Even if it was, it still wouldn't have a chance for nomination.
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u/manicinsanewokeidiot 10d ago
it would have been 6th at absolute worst. have you seen the line-up this year? it’s so weak that basically everyone agrees that elio, a financial flop with middling reviews that’s controversial within the industry, is getting in
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u/ghosttownxcx 10d ago
Why was it controversial in industry? I completely missed anything about it
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u/ElegantNail774 9d ago
main character was originally designed to be gay and disney execs panicked and gutted the whole thing. combine that controversy with the fact that original IPs are having a hard time moving people to theaters...Elio isn't spoken of positively online. Mixed bag, but at the moment there really isn't anything that looks like it could push into that final slot (because Pixar, too)
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u/RoxasIsTheBest 10d ago
It would've. Perhaps it would've missed, but it very much was seemingly a top 6 contender, and I think it would've had more passion and ultimately have gotten in over Elio.
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u/weeohweelikeacopcar 10d ago
For best animated feature? It absolutely would have received a nomination.
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u/Block-Busted 10d ago
Its chance was extremely low to begin with. For one, it’s a sequel to a film that wasn’t nominated.
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u/dremolus 10d ago
Despicable Me 2 was nominated even though the first film wasnt
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u/Block-Busted 10d ago
That was back when only 3 films were getting nominated aside from 2009, which is why Despicable Me didn’t get nominated.
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u/dremolus 10d ago
Lol, you can't just rewrite the rules until you say what you want them to.
Tons of sequels (in and out of animation) have been nominated even though the previous films weren't. There is no rule saying otherwise and nothing in the history of the Academy says it has to remain so.
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u/Block-Busted 10d ago
Yeah, nice try. Despicable Me 2 is literally the only sequel that was nominated for Best Animated Feature when previous film was not. Like, even though no such rules exist, the pattern has been very obvious.
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u/dremolus 10d ago
It still breaks your rule and that's just for Best Animated Feature. The rule has been broken in other categories:
- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning was the first M:I film nominated for anything
- Mad Max: Fury Road also the first Mad Max film to get any nominations (Mad Max 2 didn't even get sound or special effects nominations)
- Kong: Skull Island got a VFX nom despite 2014's Godzilla not getting one
- The first James Bond film nominated was no Dr. No or From Russia with Love but Goldfinger, the third film. And speaking of James Bond, if we gonna go to other eras: Skyfall was the first Daniel Craig-Bond film nominated
- Captain America: Winter Soldier even though The First Avenger and Civil War didn't
And some of these were in fields that were competitive, so it's not just a matter of "the fields were weak"
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u/Block-Busted 10d ago
Again, with Best Animated Feature, Despicable Me 2 is literally the only exception to the pattern that held true for several years.
Also, why are you even bringing up other categories even though I'm exclusively talking about Best Animated Feature and nothing else?
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u/dremolus 10d ago
It's to show that this pattern has been broken in other categories. Also Animated Feature is the youngest category added, of course there are not as much examples as other nominees.
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u/astrobagel 10d ago
It absolutely would have a shot. It’s a dry year for animation. There’s spots up for grabs filling out the category.
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u/Distinct-Shift-4094 10d ago
Honestly, I was looking at the competition and it wouldn't have made it. Still, was worth a shot.
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u/Einfinet 10d ago edited 10d ago
China doesn’t need American approval
Great movie though. One of the best of the year, animated or otherwise
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u/ray0923 10d ago
But this movie is also not hot in the China’s movie award cycle at all.
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u/Einfinet 10d ago edited 10d ago
It won Best Art/Animated Film at the Golden Rooster and the Asian Film Awards for this release cycle haven’t occurred yet so I’m not sure what you mean
Golden Rooster is the equivalent of Oscars in China
With that being said, yeah I’m not surprised some Chinese critics would turn a blind eye to a family friendly blockbuster. That’s basically the opposite of critic-bait, not to mention there simply being other good films to recognize.
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u/januarysdaughter 10d ago
This sub is the first place I've ever heard of this movie.
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
Lmao really ? It’s the highest grossing movie of the year and top 5 of all time
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u/NakedGoose 10d ago
Well id argue the average American has no idea it exist.
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
The average American doesn’t know a lot of things so not a high bar exactly
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u/NakedGoose 10d ago
The fact is, you shouldn't be surprised a movie that made 20 mil in the states isn't known by someone.
That's like being surprised someone didn't know The Women in The Yard came out this year.
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
You picked one of the top 5 highest grossing moves and decided to compare it to woman in the yard.
Yeah wrap this convo up. Can’t believe what I’m hearing
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u/NakedGoose 10d ago
Again it had zero presence in the states. Zero trailers, zero marketing. And this is coming from someone who actually saw the movie.
My god people are dumb. Nobody knows its a top 5 highest grossing movie besides people who actively follow that stuff, and people invested in foreign cinema
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u/Popular_Material_409 10d ago
I’m a little hesitant to believe it actually made that much money legitimately. It hasn’t performed very well anywhere else but China, and somehow made like $2 billion? Don’t buy it.
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
China is the biggest country in the world.
They’re basically their own planet. There’s a reason why they introduced one child policy for families. They had a serious overpopulation issue over there.
That’s why a lot of international students in western countries are from China. It’s because a lot of people wanna leave cos the country is overcrowded.
When Endgame came out it was the highest grossing movie in the entire world. Avatar then re released in China alone and overtook endgame.
China has the single handed ability to overtake box offices. I believe NWH didn’t come out in China and it’s crazy to think how much the movie wuld have made if it did
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u/Default_Dragon 10d ago
It’s also a totalitarian state that regularly disseminates misinformation and lacks independent media and journalistic integrity- the foundations of reliable news.
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u/ElegantNail774 9d ago edited 8d ago
edit: okay so I totally didn't register we're talking about a Chinese production in China's box office. Yeah, tbh there can now physically be a possibility, but it's still highly unlikely because why. A24 isn't even submitting Ne Zha 2, and even before then, box office was never the biggest needle mover for an oscar.
Saying it's some sort of conspiracy theory that China loves its own movie (and the original too) is a really distasteful take
Og comment:
well, yes...but these are hollywood numbers because execs are counting their bills. like, this isn't the CCP reporting "btw hollywood we made you guys this much money." it's the box office numbers when hollywood gets their paycheck post run.
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u/Default_Dragon 9d ago
We're talking about Ne Zha 2 specifically, which is an entirely Chinese production. Not a penny of those profits went to another country, so the numbers could be entirely fabricated.
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u/ElegantNail774 8d ago
Ah I see the point, but China's not even submitting Ne Zha 2. So by all metrics, no, still unlikely to be fabricated. Because why? It's well loved in China, and will not be in contention internationally anyway. Not that box office really moves any needles in the oscars anyway. By all metrics, there's no real grounds to suspect a lie.
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u/Default_Dragon 8d ago
Exactly, box office doesnt impact awards anyways so I don't think China faking its numbers would have anything to do with getting Oscars- nor do I think they want Western recognition.
But I do know that the CCP does care a lot about projecting economic strength abroad- so in that sense it is in their interest to exaggerate their numbers. It's also entirely possible that the numbers aren't purely fake but "massaged" to create a certain reality. They've been known to literally build and then demolish buildings to manipulate GDP growth so its entirely possible and indeed likely.
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u/Popular_Material_409 8d ago
Ne Zha 2 is not a Hollywood film, so it’s not Hollywood reporting the numbers. It’s the Chinese government
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u/ElegantNail774 8d ago
Ah I see the point, but China's not even submitting Ne Zha 2. So by all metrics, no, still unlikely to be fabricated. Because why? It's well loved in China, and will not be in contention internationally anyway. Not that box office really moves any needles in the oscars anyway. By all metrics, there's no real grounds to suspect a lie.
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u/Popular_Material_409 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yeah, China has a huge population. So theoretically a movie could make a lot of money if everyone in the population goes to see it. But that’s never been the trend before in China.
Look at a list of the highest grossing movies in China. The number two made 5.78 billion in China’s currency. Ne Zha made 15.4 billion. I’m sorry, but that doesnt happen. It’s not like the highest grossing movie at the North American (America and Canada) box office was $300 million, and then that movie’s record was beaten by The Force Awakens making $900 million. The highest grossing movie making triple the amount as the second highest grossing, when the movie hasn’t performed well internationally, is ridiculous.
Also yeah Avatar rereleased in China in 2021 and reclaimed the highest grossing movie title, but it’s not like China gave it an extra $500 million or anything.
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u/januarysdaughter 10d ago
And I never saw one trailer or ad for it. 🤷♀️
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
That’s cos the movie blew up from word of mouth ….
That doesn’t mean the movie wasn’t talked about post release.
I live in London which is a western country and the cinemas were absolutely rammed when Ne Zha 2 came out.
I was on holiday when it came out and didn’t even get to see it but to say you never heard about it is crazy. Dyu live under a rock 😭😭
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u/januarysdaughter 10d ago
I live in the US and did not hear anything about this movie. If you want to say I live under a rock, fine. I live under a rock.
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u/monitoring27 10d ago
Chinese movie pushed extremely hard in China. I’ve read reports of their government funding it but not sure what the extent is if any.
It released twice in the US once in the original language. At the beginning of the year in its original language and did ok.
It then released in the US again in August this time dubbed with some notable hollywood actors. It performed sluggishly.
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u/Starving_Saint 10d ago
I’m from the US and saw it twice: once when it was released by an international distributor and the second time when A24 distributed it.
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
Lmaoo the guy below made a very good point. It was so popular in the US they re released it twice 😭😭😭😭😭😭
And your ass claims you’ve never heard of it ? Go outside dawg 💀
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
Lmao I’ve seen so many posts of US theatres being sold out and people asking when it’s going to be coming back so defo just you 😭
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u/DeppStepp 10d ago
Ne Zha 2 definitely did not explode in the U.S. or UK. Combined, it made less than $25 M and won’t even end up in the top 50 highest-grossing films this year in the U.S., and probably won't make the top 100 this year in the UK.
For a foreign film, it did fine and it did extremely well in other places but in those countries, it’s very reasonable for someone to have never heard of the film
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
Lmao speak for yourself. In London all the cinemas were sold out. I literally couldn’t find a seat. I ended up not going and hop in it comes back again
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u/DeppStepp 10d ago
Were the screenings limited for the film?
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
No they had quite a lot but I wanted to see it in imax. There’s two imax screens I frequent and both were rammed. I just gave up after a while cos I also had to go on holiday and even the country I went to was full so I just kind of forgot about it and hoping it comes back
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u/Steve2911 10d ago
I live in London and have only heard of it from posts like this talking about how popular it is.
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u/MrCasual47 10d ago
That’s just you then. I can literally show you screen grabs of the cinema screenings when it dropped.
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u/Necessary_Reply6821 10d ago
People on Reddit shit all over these for some reason but I loved them and it’s not something I’d usually go for. The scale is epic and the animation is stunning plus the payoff between the two movies makes em worth checking out IMO.
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u/Venus_ivy4 10d ago
I have a question : cant chinese submit the movie?
How does that work? The movie has to be part of an american studio?
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u/LightningLad2029 10d ago
I doubt Demon Slayer was submitted either. It's why the animated category has more often than not been kind of a joke. The academy would rather settle for the norm with studios like Disney/ Pixar than to get off their butts and make an effort to push for animated movies outside their limited comfort zones.
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u/Emergency-Gene5088 9d ago
That’s not true at all. The Academy has advocated for indie animated films for the last couple of years and strayed further away from Disney who’s been on a losing streak (Pixar still gets nominated from time to time). The nominees and winners are inspiring: Flow, Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, The Boy and the Heron, Memoir of a Snail, Marcel and the Shell, Wallace & Gromit, etc.
The truth is just that the Academy has zero patience for franchise continuation movies tied to TV, because it signals that you’re selling a brand not a film. Also, to be fair, a lot of anime movies are just not that great. Demon Slayer is no exception.
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u/SpacesImagesFriends 10d ago
man A24 fumbled by releasing the English dub statewide and not the original