Richard Linklater's latest animated movie doesn't qualify for an animation Oscar, and the director isn't happy about it. Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood was released on Netflix in March this year. Set during the 1969 Moon Landing, the film explores the fantasies of children on Earth who watched the historic televised event and is loosely based on the director's own childhood. The movie is made in a similar style to Linklater's rotoscoped films, A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life, and takes inspiration from kids' Saturday morning cartoons.
However, the Academy's animation committee rejected the movie for Oscar consideration in the Best Animated Feature Film category. The committee wrote that the Academy "does not feel that the techniques meet the definition of animation in the category rules" due to the "extensive use" of live-action footage. This footage was used for reference, but none of it appears in the movie. Linklater and Netflix have appealed the Academy's decision, but at the time of writing, they've had no response.
"This decision cuts off the creative flow for a certain kind of animated movie," Linklater told IndieWire. "Will anyone greenlight something like this if it can’t get nominated? The [animation] industry is clustered around kids’ entertainment. I get this feeling that they’re basically like, 'Indie weirdos, go home.'"
"I feel like if I’ve been caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare where someone is saying something isn’t real and I know it’s real," said the movie's animation director, Tommy Pallotta. "I’ve been producing rotoscope animation for 25 years, and I’m done with people telling me it’s not animation. It’s just such an insult."
Linklater added: "Here’s what’s fucked up – the notion that there is one way that is more pure than another. Technology and creativity should be able to run wild. The process has far outstripped their thinking so they end up super conservative with a frustratingly simple view of it that’s anti-art. The category that should be most inclusive of expression is instead the most status quo."
Apollo 10 ½ is available to stream on Netflix now. If you've already seen Linklater's latest, check out our picks of the other best Netflix movies to watch right now.
