Six nominations, zero wins: can 'Wildwood' finally break Laika's Oscar drought?

Laika has gone five-for-five on Best Animated Feature nominations since 2009, and zero-for-five on wins. Wildwood, the studio's sixth feature, arrives in theaters this weekend with the goal of changing the second number while extending the first.

Gold Derby's experts give Wildwood a 100% chance of a nomination at the 2027 Oscars, tied with Toy Story 5. Their rankings place Iron Boy, Hoppers, and Ray Gunn behind the two front-runners. The critics have already weighed in: a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86 "universal acclaim" score on Metacritic.

Directed by Travis Knight and adapted from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis's 2011 fantasy novel, Wildwood follows a teenage girl and her classmate into a hidden magical forest to rescue her kidnapped baby brother. The voice cast runs deep — Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, and Richard E. Grant.

Why the drought runs so deep

The pattern is brutal, and it runs through Disney and Pixar every time.

• Coraline (2009): Henry Selick's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novella is now the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time, but it ran into Up, which landed four additional nominations including Best Picture.
• ParaNorman (2012): A modest commercial performer with strong reviews, it lost the Critics Choice and PGA to Wreck-It Ralph, and the Golden Globe and BAFTA to Brave — the eventual Oscar winner.
• The Boxtrolls (2014): Nominated all season, it watched The Lego Movie take Critics Choice, PGA, and BAFTA, only for Disney's Big Hero 6 to take the Oscar over favored How to Train Your Dragon 2.
• Kubo and the Two Strings (2016): A box-office disappointment with widespread acclaim, it made history as the first animated film nominated for Best Visual Effects since The Nightmare Before Christmas, 23 years earlier. It won the BAFTA but lost the animation Oscar to Zootopia and the VFX prize to The Jungle Book.
• Missing Link (2019): The most expensive stop-motion film ever made at a $100 million budget, it grossed just over $26 million. It pulled off a surprise Golden Globe win — the only non-sequel, non-remake in the field against Frozen II, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Lion King, and Toy Story 4 — then lost the Oscar to Toy Story 4.

What does the history actually tell us?

Laika's problem has never been getting nominated. The indie stop-motion house (the frame-by-frame puppet-animation technique behind all six of its features) has converted every single release into an Academy nod since Coraline.

Its problem is the final ballot. Every loss has come at the hands of a Disney or Disney-Pixar title: Up, Brave, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Toy Story 4.

Wildwood's case differs from its predecessors in one respect — the competition picture. The tied front-runner, Toy Story 5, keeps the Disney-Pixar threat alive. But nothing in the studio's history has entered the race with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and a unanimous expert consensus this early.

Seven years passed between Missing Link and Wildwood, the longest gap in the studio's history. If the sixth time finally lands the statuette, it breaks a streak that has defined one of the 21st century's most consistently nominated animation studios. If not, the record moves to a grim six-for-six.

Where the race stands now

The current expert ranking puts Wildwood and Toy Story 5 at 100% nomination odds, with Iron Boy, Hoppers, and Ray Gunn trailing in descending order. The 2027 ceremony is the target.

Laika has never had a film enter the race this strong on paper. It has also never won. One of those facts changes, or history repeats itself a sixth time.