Nominating for an Oscar is the highest honor for any film, let alone winning. The odds are always against you, especially if you are a foreign picture, yet most studios let the film enter the nomination if it meets the criteria. This year Oscar can be that one for Toei Animation as their produced film “Magic Candies” was announced for the nomination.
Toei Animation is one of the biggest Japanese animation studios, producing anime like One Piece, Dragon Ball, World Trigger, and many more. And yet, they never won the Oscar. However, the company is one step closer to reaching the Oscar for this year’s Academic Year Nomination. Toei Animation’s Magic Candies is one of the 15 shortlisted short films legible for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar for the 97th Academy Awards. Moreover, the short film is among the few anime that was nominated for an Oscar before it.
Magic Candies is a coming-of-age Japanese short film by Daisuke Nishio that follows the life of a young boy who enjoys being himself and playing with marbles. He eventually gets his hands on the marble-shaped magic candies, which, after eating one, allow him to hear his sofa speaking (voiced by Hiroshi Iwasaki). He soon realizes he can communicate with different objects, animals, and people after eating one of those candies. Magic Candies is a 2024 short film produced by Toei Animation and inspired by the Korean picture book Magic Candies, it uses special CGI animation that allows the film to be similar to clay and stop motion. The film received acclaim for its animation and beautiful story, receiving multiple honors and nominations.
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Academy Bias Against Anime – Magic Candies
The 2024 Japanese coming-of-age short film has a slight chance of getting this year’s nomination, let alone win. While Oscar lets foreign films get nominated for Animated Features and Short Categories, there’s a talk surrounding the film fraternity of the anime that the Academy has yet to acknowledge. Toei Animation and other animation studio often submit their films for awards and don’t make it to the final nomination. The basis against anime is so massive that only two films received Oscars.
The Academy skips over popular and well-acclaimed films like Your Name from 2016. Your Name is one of the best 2016 films, with unique concepts, artwork, and world-class animation. Still, the film did not receive the nomination, let alone winning. Even Toei’s recent biggest success, The First Slam Dunk, only wound up shortlisted, not the nomination for the 2023 Oscar. In general, people in the Academy have a juvenile view of the animation, choosing The Boss Baby and Toy Story instead.
The films directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli are exceptional. They often get passed through the Academy basis for the anime and even win. Films like Spirited Away and The Boy And Heron were the only films that brought the Oscar for anime. While Magic Candies is only on the shortlist, Toei Animation has faith that the short film will end its long-awaited desire to win an Academy Award.
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