Friday, February 20, 2026

Animation and International Film nominees at the Saturn Awards


As I promised twice, I'm completing my coverage of the movie nominees at the Saturn Awards before moving on to television. I'm shuffling the order of categories a bit to feature Best Animated Film first.
Best Animated Film:

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
The Bad Guys 2
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants
Zootopia 2
The professionals' choice is KPop Demon Hunters, which won Best Animated Feature at the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes plus a GRAMMY for "Golden" and leads the Gold Derby odds to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. I voted for it. That doesn't mean it will win here. As I last wrote in 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' leads Best Action/Adventure Film at the Saturn Awards, "the Saturn Awards are about entertainment not art, they don't care for subtle, and they love to stick it to the experts." It's the last criterion that I think might sway the vote to Zootopia 2. I predicted that Finding Dory would beat Zootopia in 2017 (it did) and something similar could happen here. That the Saturn Awards Instagram account made an image for Zootopia 2, reproduced above, but not for Kpop Demon Hunters. Things that make me say hmm.

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films instituted a new award this year, Best International Animated Film, and here are its nominees.

Best International Animated Film (New Category)

Attack on Titan the Movie: The Last Attack
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
The Colors Within
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Ne Zha 2
Stitch Head
This is a category where I didn't pay attention to expert/professional opinion. I voted for Ne Zha 2 because it was the highest grossing movie in the world released during 2025. On the other hand, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle had a much higher gross in North America and earned a Golden Globe nomination. On those bases, I think it's more likely to win, although Attack on Titan the Movie: The Last Attack has the highest IMDB rating of all the nominees in this category. I would neither be upset nor surprised if either of the latter win.

The next logical category and the last one today is Best International Film.

Best International Film:

40 Acres
Bring Her Back
Dead of Winter
Night Call
The Ugly Stepsister
Sisu 2: Road to Revenge
I voted for Bring Her Back because it was the one I'd heard the most about and it has the highest IMDB rating of all the nominees in this category. That doesn't mean it will will win. The original Sisu won two years ago and I wouldn't be surprised if its sequel wins this year.

That's a wrap for today's installment. Stay tuned for the television nominations next, either tomorrow or Sunday.

Previous posts about the 53rd Saturn Awards
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