Best Animated Feature (a.k.a. Best Motion Picture — Animated) has now been a Golden Globes category for 20 years. Five years after it debuted at the Oscars, the then Hollywood Foreign Press Association felt it was finally time to give animation its own spotlight at the Globes.

2006 was a major year for animated films, with blockbuster and studio breakthrough titles such as Blue Sky’s “Ice Age: The Meltdown”, Sony Pictures Animation’s first feature “Open Season”, and DreamWorks’ “Over the Hedge”, which co-starred Steve Carell as the voice of rambunctious squirrel Hammy. Carell was the presenter of the first Best Animated Feature Golden Globe, and as he stated during the January 2007 telecast, “…It is a very big deal.” The nominees were Pixar’s “Cars”, Warner Bros.’ “Happy Feet” and Sony’s “Monster House”. “Cars” was named the winner. The same three films were also on the Oscar ballot, where “Happy Feet” claimed victory.

It was one of only four times to date, out of 19 occasions, when the Globe and Oscar winners didn’t match. The other three cases: Steven Spielberg accepted the Globe for “The Adventures of Tintin” in Jan. 2012. The Oscar went to “Rango”… “Tintin” wasn’t even nominated. “How to Train Your Dragon 2” was the Globe recipient a few years later, while “Big Hero 6” took home the Academy Award. And after three previous nominations — for “Coraline”, “The Boxtrolls” and “Kubo and the Two Strings” — the Globe for 2019’s animated features went to Laika for stop-motion “Missing Link”. Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” won the Oscar.

The first three “Toy Story” installments made history at the Golden Globes. In addition to 2010’s “Toy Story 3” becoming the first sequel or threequel to win Best Animated Feature, 1995’s “Toy Story”, the first CG animated feature ever made, was nominated for the Best Picture: Comedy or Musical Golden Globe. And four years later, “Toy Story 2” became the third animated film to win in that prestigious category, after “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King”.

Before animation received its own category, these films competed against live-action movies in Best Picture: Comedy or Musical. The first animated nominee was 1989’s “The Little Mermaid”. Two years later, “Beauty” won and went on to receive a historic Best Picture Oscar nomination. The other animated Globe Best Picture nominees were Disney’s “Aladdin”, Aardman’s “Chicken Run”, Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles”, and DreamWorks’ “Shrek”, which became the first Best Animated Feature Oscar winner in 2002.

On Sunday January 11th, we’ll find out which of these six films will become the 20th Golden Globes Best Animated Feature recipient. There’s “Arco” from NEON, Sony/Crunchyroll’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle”, Pixar’s “Elio”, Sony and Netflix collab “KPop Demon Hunters”, “Little Amelie or The Character of Rain” from GKIDS, and Disney’s “Zootopia 2”. The Globe and Oscar winner have matched nine of the past 10 years, including the most recent five in a row — “Soul”, “Encanto”, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”, “The Boy and the Heron” and “Flow”.

An “Elio” victory would be the 10th for Pixar (a studio whose Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter, is the director with the most wins, with three). Walt Disney Animation Studios has previously won three times (including for “Frozen” and the first “Zootopia”). NEON, Crunchyroll and GKIDS would claim their first win with their respective titles. And if it’s “KPop”, Sony Pictures Animation would have a second trophy, following 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”. (This would also be the second Netflix win, after “Pinocchio”.) We’ll see what happens as another exciting awards season heats up! (Sources: IMDb, YouTube and Golden Globes Facebook)