Funimation to Submit Summer Wars for the Oscars

Anime News Network reports that Mamoru Hosoda's Summer Wars has confirmed that Funimation is currently filling its paperwork to submit for consideration at the next Academy Awards. 

According to the Hollywood blog, TheWrap, the movie would be the 14th submission for the Best Animated Feature category. The Oscars rules are such that if there are 16 eligible films for the Best Animated Feature, there will be a total of five nominees; if there are fewer than 16, the pool of nominees will be only three.

Funimation notes that it has "a few more deadlines to meet" but is excited "to bring this beautiful film to the attention of the movie-going public. Hosoda is a gifted storyteller and an animation visionary." Funimation also confirmed that it is working with distributor GKIDS, which "guided The Secret of Kells to its Academy Award nomination last year."

This isn't the first time an Japanese animated feature went to the Oscars. Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away won in the 75th Academy Awards, making it the first foreign film that won in the said category. Along with it, another Miyazaki work, Howl's Moving Castle was nominated for the said category but lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. 

Considering the odds that Toy Story 3 might be part of it, and considering that Dreamworks did good this year, I guess Summer Wars might have one tough war ahead of them. If you guys want to know what can I say about this film, here's my review of the said film.