LOS ANGELES, Feb 7 — Walt Disney Animation’s buddy movie Zootopia received the animation industry’s Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, adding it to a growing cabinet of trophies in the lead up to the 89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2017.

A Best Animated Feature win at the Annie Awards on February 4 gave Zootopia a second major film award win ahead of the 2017 Oscars on February 26.

All five nominees in the Academy Awards’ own Best Animated Feature were represented at the Annie Awards in one way or another, though not all were nominated for its premiere accolade.

And with specialist award shows like the Annies enjoying considerable crossover with eventual Oscar outcomes, it’s one of the bigger indicators of Academy Award glory as far as animated features are concerned.

After the Oscars introduced its Best Animated Feature category in 2002, the award went to an Annie winner for five years in a row: Shrek, Spirited Away, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and the Wallace & Gromit Were-Rabbit film.

In 2008, the pattern changed, and Annie winners received the corresponding Oscar in even years: Ratatouille, Up, Rango, Frozen and Inside Out.

Over the past 15 years, the Annie Awards’ Best Animated Feature winner has won the same Oscar on 10 occasions.

That’s a pretty good ratio as far as Oscar prediction goes, and it now looks likely that Zootopia will put an end to the Annies’ odd-even year Oscar pattern too.

It’s already won the American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award for Best Edited Animated Feature, a relatively recent award whose recipient has nevertheless taken the Best Animated Feature Oscar six out of seven times.

ACE voters chose it over two of its five fellow Academy Award nominees, Kubo and the Two Strings and Moana.

Zootopia’s run extends to the Golden Globes (the Globes have an Oscar track record of 7 in 10) and the Critics Choice awards (7 in the last 10 years, 12 in 15.)

An even better predictor than those has been the Bafta ceremony.

The British Academy’s Animated Feature award has a 9 out of 10 Oscar track record, even calling Happy Feet in 2007 when the Annies, Globes and Critics Choice went for Cars.

In fact, its only miss to date was Big Hero 6 in 2015, a year in which neither The Lego Movie (the Bafta choice) nor fellow awards season favorite How to Train Your Dragon 2 were up for Oscar consideration.

So with Zootopia now having collected relevant awards at the Annies, ACE Eddies, and Critics Choice, attention now turns to the Bafta awards on February 12, 2017. — AFP-Relaxnews