Next month, the Academy will be handing out Oscars faithfully to an array of highly deserving, highly human winners.
But has the little gold man been to someone who is not at all human? Many animal stories, from “Baby” to “Warhorse” to “Life of Pie”, have won best photo nominations, but the camera-mugging dog (“Artist”) and Messi (“Autumn Anatomy”” (“School”) was a boon to their respective award campaigns for films. However, none of the four-legged stars in these films received their own Oscar statue.
The only animal “winner” looks like a 2D animated mouse wearing buttoned shorts and shoes. Here’s what we know:
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Has Mickey Mouse ever won an Oscar?
In 1932, Walt Disney received an Honorary Oscar for the creation of Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse was featured in 1928 and appeared in more than three dozen cartoon shorts over the next few years.
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It became popular internet lore that Mickey was the first inhuman to technically win an Oscar. It made a very cute photo manipulation, but Disney itself was not a rodent of the story, it was the award winner.
How many Oscars did Walt Disney win?
Disney has received 26 Oscars, both competitive and non-competitive throughout his career. This includes the 1939 special award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In addition to standard sized gold statues, the animation pioneers were given seven small Oscars mounted on miniature staircases.
Who is the Oscar-winning cartoon character?
Mickey’s comics have been nominated for almost a dozen Oscars over the years, all in the category of Best Animated Short Films. However, the only thing that won was the “Lending Foot” in 1941. There, Pl Pun saves the brave little kitten and fights for Mickey’s attention.
In particular, “Tom & Jerry” is an Oscar-winning cartoon character with seven statues starting with the 1943 “Yankee Doodle Mouse.” The playful cat and mouse shorts were nominated for 13 Oscars in the 1940s and 50s.
Has the animal ever won an Oscar?
There is nothing in the Academy’s official rules that indicates that an actor must be human to qualify for an Oscar or that the animal is not permitted to compete for the award. According to Susan Oren’s 2011 book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, Rinty won the best actor vote in the first year of the Oscars, but academy members said they would condemn the award. I was worried. (Bruce Davis, the academy’s former executive director, later denied Orleans’ claim.)
However, there is a precedent for celebrating Hollywood dogs and their trainers at other award rituals. In 2023, Messi of Border Collie was awarded the prestigious Palm Dog Award at the Cannes Film Festival in France. And for decades, the American Humane Society held its annual Patsy Awards, recognising iconic dogs in “Old Iller,” “Shaggy Dog,” and TV’s “Lassie.”