A year after Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, no anime films were nominated in either the Feature or Animated Short categories.  While it is a foregone conclusion that Finding Nemo will take home the Animated Feature Film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failure to nominate Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress or his Tokyo Godfathers is inexplicable. 

Only three animated features were nominated, Disney's Brother Bear, the French feature The Triplets of Belleville, and Nemo.  While the Academy was right to recognize the revival of European animation exemplified by The Triplets of Belleville, to neglect Millennium Actress, which is simply one of the most brilliant narratives ever attempted in animation is a crime -- and could largely be the result of the Academy's decision to forgo 'screeners' out of fear of piracy.  If the relevant Academy members actually had the chance to watch Millennium Actress, the film would have received a nomination.

Equally hard to understand is the failure of the Academy to nominate The Flight of the Osiris short from the Animatrix.  The Animatrix was both an artistic and commercial success, a combination that typically wins the Academy's approval.