There is a lot of talk lately about the eligibility of Robert Zemeckis' upcoming "Beowulf" in the Best Animated Feature category.  There is also a concerted effort to refrain from pitching the film as an animated endeavor for awards attention.  Additionally, the director himself has even said that "to call performance capture animation is a disservice to the great animators."

The fact is that it's very likely the animation branch will not nominate Zemeckis' motion-capture film, just as they snubbed "The Polar Express" in 2004.  The sound departments will certainly be on board (Gerard Kennedy fleshed out some interesting talking points with sound mixer Randy Thom at In Contention yesterday), and perhaps the music branch will follow suit -- again, just as in 2004.  But whether the film is good enough to muster a Best Picture nomination is still to be seen

Regardless of all of this, I think it's worth taking note of Zemeckis' obvious desire to push the industry forward by leaps and bounds.  Maybe he deserves some kind of recognition outside of the Oscar ceremony's typical order of proceedings.

In 1988, Zemeckis' "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" garnered a Special Achievement award for animation director Richard Williams, and it was obviously very deserving considering how innovative the effort was at the time.  It's been a while since the Academy has gone out of its way to offer such a designation, and given that Zemeckis is leading the charge on what very well could be the next major phase in cinema technology, perhaps it's time to dust that award off and toss it his way once again.

After "Beowulf," Zemeckis will be diving right back into the motion-capture fray with the Jim Carrey-starrer "A Christmas Carol," in which Carrey will portray Ebenezer Scrooge and all four of the ghosts from the tale.