Disney/ Pixars Oscar bid for WALL-E
Disney/ Pixar start their campaign for WALL-E to become the first animated feature to win 'Best Picture' at the Academy Awards.
Only one, Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", released in 1991, has ever been nominated for best picture highliting the difficulty of the task the studio has at hand.
"If we didn't do it, I don't think we'd be giving the movie its due", Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said of the decision to promote WALL-E for the top prize, even if that complicates the movie's simultaneous bid for the more easily won award as best animated feature. One problem is a presumed tendency to split votes. Academy members can vote for a film in both the best picture and best animated feature categories. But they may not be inclined to do that or even know that the rules permit it.
Source: nytimes.com