7) Anomalisa
Potential nominations: Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay
Released just before the year’s end on December 30th, the producers behind Anomalisa are clearly positioning Charlie Kaufman’s return to filmmaking as a prospective awards contender. A micro-budget Kickstarter project and offbeat animation, the film wowed on the festival circuit and is due to be the one true challenger to Pixar at the 2016 Oscars.
As it’s Kaufman, Oscar-nominated and once a winner for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there’s no counting out that Anomalisa‘s script won’t come in for an Academy nod, too. Critics are already calling the film, about an author struggling to connect with the people around him, an animated classic. So, let the battle between the mighty Inside Out and Charlie Kaufman’s stop-motion underdog begin.