S26 - Ep 5 - 98th Oscars - Animated Feature

Animated feature filmmaking is defined by endurance — years of development, constant iteration, and creative risks that often aren’t visible on screen.

This week on Below the Line, Skid is joined by Kent Seki and Camille Leganza to discuss the nominees for Best Animated Feature at the 98th Academy Awards. Drawing on their extensive experience in animation, they look closely at how different creative pipelines, production cultures, and storytelling ambitions shape this year’s unusually diverse slate of nominees.

As with the rest of this year’s Oscar series, the conversation is available both as an audio podcast and as a full video episode on YouTube, offering listeners the option to watch the discussion or engage with it in its traditional audio form.

Our discussion ranges across:

• The long development paths behind animated features — and what creative “endurance” really looks like in practice
• Why Arco stands out for its visual authorship, unconventional time-travel structure, and optimistic view of the future
• The creative challenges behind Elio, including director transitions, tonal recalibration, and ambitious visual experimentation
• How K‑Pop Demon Hunters became an unexpected cultural phenomenon through bold genre blending and stylistic risk
• The visual restraint, emotional specificity, and rapid production schedule that define Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
• The scale, scope, and world-building demands of Zootopia 2, and why sequels can be harder than originals
• How audience expectations, box-office performance, and cultural context intersect with Academy recognition
• What this year’s nominees suggest about the evolving identity of animated feature filmmaking

The conversation presents animated features as works of sustained creative commitment — films shaped as much by patience, resilience, and collaboration as by technology or visual style.

🎧 Press play — or watch the full conversation on YouTube — and join us Below the Line as the 2026 Oscar series continues. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.