Which 1991 Disney animated musical was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture?

The 1991 Disney animated musical that became the first animated film nominated for Best Picture is Beauty and the Beast.

Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, the film retells the French fairy tale about Belle, who offers herself in exchange for her imprisoned father and gradually discovers the humanity beneath the Beast's curse. Its songs and score were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, whose work helped establish Disney's Broadway-influenced musical style.

Beauty and the Beast received its Best Picture nomination at the 64th Academy Awards, when the category still had only five nominees. It did not win; The Silence of the Lambs took the award. The film also received nominations for Best Original Score, Best Sound, and three separate original songs.

The achievement is sometimes confused with the Best Animated Feature category, which did not exist until 2001. Beauty and the Beast was also the first animated film to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy, and it entered the U.S. National Film Registry in 2002.