What was the first Disney animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination?

Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney animated feature to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

The 1991 film was nominated at the 64th Academy Awards, where it competed in the expanded Best Picture field of five nominees. Although The Silence of the Lambs won, Beauty and the Beast’s nomination marked a major recognition for feature animation from the Academy.

The film also received nominations for its music and won Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for the title song. Its success helped establish the Disney Renaissance as a period of major commercial and critical achievement.

The film is often described as the first animated feature nominated for Best Picture, but that wording refers to Beauty and the Beast’s nomination before the category later expanded. Pixar’s Toy Story 3 and Up were also later nominated, while many other Disney films received nominations in musical or technical categories.