Which 1991 film became the first animated feature nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture?

Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast became the first animated feature nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The nomination recognized the film during the 64th Academy Awards, honoring achievements from 1991. It competed alongside live-action films including The Silence of the Lambs, which won Best Picture. Beauty and the Beast remains an important milestone in the growing critical recognition of animated feature filmmaking.

The film did not win Best Picture, but it won two Oscars: Best Original Score for Alan Menken and Best Original Song for “Beauty and the Beast,” written by Menken and Howard Ashman. Its nomination also helped establish animation as a serious awards contender beyond specialist categories.

The film is sometimes confused with later animated nominees such as Up or Toy Story 3. Those films received Best Picture nominations after the Academy expanded the category; Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature to achieve that recognition.