Early in “Wildwood,” as Prue McKeel bikes through Portland, Oregon, zooming past interesting locals and shops, she passes a street vendor (modeled after illustrator Carson Ellis) with a sign that reads, “Enjoy handmade art before it’s gone for good!” It’s a cute nod to LAIKA’s handcrafted artistry, but also a legitimate warning: AI and generative art devalue real artistry, and megacorporations wring creatives dry without paying them their fair share. Travis Knight’s dark fantasy adaptation may have taken sixteen years to make, but it debuted at exactly the right time, showcasing the heights stop-motion animation can reach while telling an epic story that resonates with audiences and critics alike. For too long, animation has been pushed to the kids’ table, and several innovations in the medium haven’t been treated with the same respect as live-action features. This awards season, “Wildwood“ should be taken seriously as a step forward for the industry and deserves serious Oscar consideration across the board, including Best Picture.
At this point, it’s a given that “Wildwood” will cruise to a Best Animated Feature win at the Oscars. Yes, it’s an abnormally competitive year, with two Pixar films, Brad Bird’s long-gestated noir “Ray Gunn,” an original DreamWorks film, “Forgotten Island,” and numerous independent, adult-skewing animated films like “Tangles,” “Iron Boy” and “In Waves.” Another major stop-motion title is “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom,” a franchise that scored nominations for each previous installment. Still, it’s impossible to deny the many achievements of “Wildwood.” The scale, the technological advancements, the emotional storytelling- nothing can stop LAIKA from finally winning its first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Yet voters would make an enormous mistake by stopping there and ignoring the other categories where “Wildwood” deserves Academy recognition.
Knight’s previous stop-motion feature, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” earned a Best Visual Effects nomination, making it the second animated film to do so after “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Yes, “Wildwood” is handcrafted, but LAIKA doesn’t shy away from the extensive visual effects needed to bring the handcrafted animation to life. Like a typical stop-motion film, it uses endless rigging and wires to hold the models in place, helping the characters run, jump, or fly atop a talking eagle, and each of these must be painted out. But “Wildwood” goes much further, pushing the medium’s boundaries in ways no one has seen before. According to LAIKA, around 1,800 shots are CG-affected throughout the movie. The 12-minute battle sequence alone combines practical puppets with computer animation to create an enormous sequence that rivals live-action battles such as the Battle of Helm’s Deep in “The Two Towers” and the Battle of the Bastards in “Game of Thrones.” Many sets used blue-screen backgrounds to extend the background or add the sky.
LAIKA already received a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award from the Academy in 2015 for its rapid prototyping and use of 3D printing, and the technology has only progressed further since then. The puppets have muscles that move under the skin and breathing apparatuses that ever-so-slightly inflate and deflate the chest to suggest human breathing. Few films this year will utilize more groundbreaking technology than “Wildwood.” If the film makes the Oscar shortlist for Best Visual Effects, as it almost certainly will, its bake-off presentation will go a long way toward showcasing the breathtaking visual effects that let Prue speed through the streets of Portland, thousands of characters clash swords, a murder of crows flying through the air, and an ivy tower climax that is stunning in its technical challenges.
Shockingly, no animated film has ever been nominated for Best Production Design. Even computer-animated films feature extensive production design, albeit in a virtual space. Still, stop-motion films require extensive art direction, set decoration, and props to bring their stories to life. “Wildwood” may be another dark fantasy that shares some DNA with their other films, but it’s actually a stylistic leap for LAIKA. Their previous films were often more stylized and otherworldly, while “Wildwood” is much more grounded in its realism, from its character designs to props and sets. The cars, bikes, and weapons all feel tangible and authentic because that’s exactly what they are. These are physical sets, physical elements that had to be built and crafted for every single shot in the film. While the sets may not rival the scale of something like “The Odyssey,” they’re no less impressive, with entire villages and forests built to support this epic story.
Best Original Score and Original Song are two of the most reliable Oscar categories for an animated film to contend in, but it’s still an uphill battle to be taken seriously. None of LAIKA’s films have been nominated in either category. But “Wildwood” could change that. Previous Oscar winner Dario Marianelli’s (“Atonement”) sweeping score brings together haunting string solos, gentle acoustic moments, emotional piano notes, and pounding drums sending the characters into battle. It’s an eclectic soundtrack that captures the blending of these wildly varied worlds. Marianelli hasn’t been nominated in over a decade since “Anna Karenina”, and “Wildwood” features some of his best work yet. Further, Colin Meloy deserves an Oscar nomination for The Decemberists’ original song “The Better Part of Bravery.” No one understands the tone of “Wildwood” better than Meloy, who wrote the original novel the film is based on. His end-credits song captures the uplifting, fearless tone of Prue with a spirit of exploration, all with Meloy’s trademark vulnerable vocals.
Best Sound has also recognized animation more than other Academy branches. Two films, “Soul” and “The Wild Robot,” have received nominations in the last few years, even since the two original sound categories combined back into one in 2020. And yet, no stop-motion film has ever received a nomination here. But the sound branch loves big battles, gunshots, and explosions, all of which are featured in this epic film. Animal sounds, humans fighting, trees creaking, ivy spreading, and even the unbearable shrieks of Knight’s own son are carefully crafted and integrated to make the world feel effortlessly real; animated films don’t get anything for free, as every single sound you hear in the movie has to be created from scratch since there’s no ability to record any of it on set like there is in live-action. This Oscar nomination could truly happen if the branch is open to it.
What about Best Costume Design? Deborah Cook, costume designer for all of LAIKA’s films thus far, became the first person to receive a nomination from the Costume Designers Guild for “Kubo and the Two Strings,” for Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy. It’s not a terrible stretch for Cook to receive a second nomination this year for the wide variety of outfits needed for animals and humans alike. And who can forget the bagpipe-playing Darth Vader in a kilt biking through the streets of Portland? Cook and her team have to make every item of clothing from scratch and develop materials that can bend and hold their shape to accommodate the stop-motion process. This level of innovation is something most costume designers never face. Admittedly, it’s tough to imagine the Academy’s Costume branch (which Cook herself is a member of) going for it, but the consideration should be taken more seriously. The same goes for the cinematography, notably credited to legendary DP Caleb Deschanel, who emphasized warm, sunlit tones throughout the film to create a unique look that helps it stand out from any other stop-motion film that has come before it, let alone any animated film from this year.
And above all else, “Wildwood” must be taken seriously as a contender for a Best Picture nomination. While “You Can See Everything” is dominating that conversation at the moment, aiming to become the first documentary ever nominated in the category, “Wildwood” should also be breaking through barriers and overcoming the medium’s bias to receive a Best Picture nomination. Eighteen years ago, “WALL-E” missed a Best Picture nomination, alongside “The Dark Knight,” snubs so egregious that the Academy decided to expand its Best Picture nominations the very next year, up to ten. “Up” received a nomination in 2009 as a result, and “Toy Story 3” in 2010, but no other animated films have crossed the threshold since. No animated film outside Disney’s distribution has ever received such a nomination. Best Picture features ten nominees today largely because of animation, but voters haven’t overcome animation bias in sixteen years.
“Wildwood,” with its darker themes, huge scope, and massive technological leaps, could change that perception. It’s one of the year’s most remarkable, industry-shaping films and deserves recognition among the best films of 2026.
What Oscar nominations do you think “Wildwood” will receive? Do you think it can get into Best Picture? Could any other film challenge “Wildwood” for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account, and check out Next Best Picture’s latest Oscar predictions here.
