Since the addition of the Academy of Best Animated Feature in 2001, it has long been assumed that the winner will come from one of the powerful houses in the industry: Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks animation. For most of the history of the category, that assumption was valid. However, in the last three years, the Oscar has passed elsewhere. Netflix hit the statue in 2022 for "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio", Studio Gibbla won the highest award in 2023 for "Boy and Heron", and last year's awards ceremony Made a history of animation When the independently published "flow" was beaten Highest movie of the year. These victories signify a quiet but significant change in the recognition of the Academy of Animation: Despite inherent problems shown from the perspective of the Academy of Animated CinemaArt, innovation and emotional depth are no longer limited to larger study.

Netflix has emerged as a serious candidate in this landscape development. To date, the streaming giant has earned seven nominations in the best animated category of features, with one victory (and probably the extra victory to have "Mitchells against the machines", a film that Enkanto's viral omission can exceed). Now, all eyes are on their next animated feature, "in your dreams", which already seems to be self -confident to the number eight nomination.

The film follows Stevie (expressed by Ololi Joang-Rapport) and her younger brother Eliot (Elias Jansen), as they are busy in their own dreams to find the unbeaten sand, which promises to make their dreams come true-if they can find it. They must move through the surreal landscapes, made from the imagination and nightmares, also with the desired, smart giraffe with smart giraffe, balloons Tony (Craig Robinson), serving as an incredible companion. The first trailer trailer premiered Timed at this year's Annex International Animation Film Festival, but I had the opportunity to review extended scenes at Netflix's private event. Director Alex Wu, making his debut in operation, talked frankly about his trail that descended from the jaw from working in some of the biggest animation houses in the game to directing his first feature film under his Kuku Studio banner.

Before Alex Wu he founded the studio Kuku, he earned a Student Academy Award (for the very wonderful "Rex Style: Nazi Smasher"), served as a leading story in the Pixar Animation studio and worked as a director in Lucasfilm. During his time in Pixar, he worked at Ratatuil, Wal-E, "Good Dinosaur" and "Dori's Finding", with the former couple returning with victories for the best animated feature of the Oscars. Since the founding of the Kuku Studio, it has been created and has produced the preschool series Netflix "Go!

"At that time, we were a small team of three, imagining the species of stories we wanted to see in the world," Wu said. "One of our first ideas was a movie about dreams (...) The film brings us through surreal dreams, filled with spectacular visual and funny, out of this world, but in her heart, it is an embedded, emotional story of two brothers and sisters who find their way through a world that makes no sense." The story is personal to Wu, who explained that the brothers and sisters between Stevie and Eliot are based on their own relationship with his brother and the experience they had as children when their parents went through a rough patch. "When I was six, on a cold morning in Minnesota, I woke up to find my mother at the front door with her bags packed," he explained.

"She gently told me to my brother that she took some time to understand things for our family. I didn't fully understand what it meant - but I knew everything would change.

He is so deeply entangled in his life that Wu said that a friend of his film and his reaction was: "You know, this movie is just a really circular way you tell your brother that you love him," and Wu replied, "Making movies is easier than cope with your feelings." By dealing with an existential theme, "in your dreams" provides the young audience to cultivate more challenging themes, something that has become extremely difficult to come.

Like many of us, Wu grew up in films that told us that if we wanted hard enough and if we want something bad, our dreams will come true. But then we grow, and we realize that sometimes it is ... but sometimes it is not. With that cruel reality that goes into the distance, it is difficult not to fall into nihilism. As Wu missed, "I really wanted to make a movie that explores the question of what you do when your dreams actually do not come true? How do you find hope? How do you continue to progress in life? How do you find a way?"

Wu explained that dream movies in the animated space were the white whale of every studio, and savings on something like "internal" spin-off dreams of dreams (which works as a comedy in the workplace that only happens Being in the movie studio version of Dreamland), no one has managed to find a way to make a dream movie to have stakes. After Wu and his team broke the idea, they jumped to do so to make sure they could beat their competitors. But the real motivating factor was the story itself. "I made this movie with the confidence that the best way is with an open heart - that sometimes we have to miss what we dream of life should be and keep life as it actually," Wu said. "I hope you and your family inspire you not only to dream of great, but to find joy in all life moments, because even when it's messy, it's nice."

The premise is charming, but the visual ambition and narrative heart exalt it outside the celebrities. The footage I saw and the hanger above revealed a film rich in layered world -class building, emotionally grounded character dynamics, and visual style that mixes the abstraction as dreaming of tangible heat. If "in your dreams" delivers a promise of her early shots, it could be more than just a candidate for Netflix's next awards - it can be a sign that the family film landscape finally expands once again, both in scope and in spirit.

"In Your Dreams" is expected on November 14, 2025, and there are voice performances by Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Christin Millotti, Omid Allili, Gia Carides, Sungvon Joe and Zahari Noah Piser.