A record 20 films have been submitted for best animated feature at the Academy Awards.
As long as at least 16 films qualify, there will be five nominees in the feature-length animation category.
The category has had only three nominees most years, but 2009 has been a prolific year for animation. The only previous year when there were five nominees came in 2002, when 17 animated films were submitted.
Submissions include a wide variety of styles, including the computer animation of such hits as Up, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Monsters vs. Aliens; the stop-motion animation of Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Mary and Max; and the hand-drawn animation of The Princess and the Frog and Ponyo.
Other films submitted are Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Astro Boy, Battle for Terra, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Disney's A Christmas Carol, The Dolphin - Story of a Dreamer, The Missing Lynx, 9, Planet 51, The Secret of Kells, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure and A Town Called Panic.
Some films have yet to complete a weeklong theatrical run in Los Angeles to qualify for the Oscars. Academy rules for the category also state that a "significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time".
AP