Wile E. Coyote to Woody and Buzz Lightyear: Hold my anvil. In a piece of breaking news too big to fit on a single sign, Gold Derby can exclusively reveal that Coyote vs. Acme has been ruled eligible to compete for Best Animated Feature at the 2027 Oscars.
Directed by Dave Green and written by Oscar-nominated May December screenwriter Samy Burch, the late summer box-office hit is poised to shake up a category that’s so far been a two-movie race between Laika’s stop-motion fantasy epic Wildwood and Pixar’s latest trip to its toy chest, Toy Story 5. This news follows the recent death of voice actor Eric Bauza, who voiced Wile E.’s eternal nemesis — and secret best friend — the Road Runner in Coyote vs. Acme, as well as such classic Looney Tunes characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Tweety.
Coyote vs. Acme‘s ruling clears up an eligibility question that initially kept the film on the sidelines as the Best Animated Feature race took shape. Back in August, a source close to the film initially told Gold Derby that it wouldn’t be submitted due to potentially falling short of the stated requirement that “75% of the runtime must include animation of the primary subject or subjects.” But that source later revised their statement to indicate that a final decision would be made pending further review. Gold Derby can confirm that the Academy has officially ruled in the movie’s favor as a Best Animated Feature contender.
If Coyote vs. Acme scores an Oscar nod, it would only be the second live-action/animated hybrid to be nominated for Best Animated Feature in the category’s 25-year history, after 2021’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. It’s also the first Looney Tunes-derived feature to score with Oscar voters after 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action and 2024’s Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up both went unrecognized. (Although the former might not have met the 75% threshold necessary for a nomination.) And should Coyote vs. Acme win the statuette next March, it would be a historic Oscar first in both of those areas.
Historically, Oscar voters recognized several films that combined live action and animation prior to the creation of the Best Animated Feature category. That list is led by the Disney classic Mary Poppins, which married the two mediums in its extended “Jolly Holiday” sequence, and received a Best Picture nomination among its 13 nods and five wins, including a Best Actress statuette for Julie Andrews.
Robert Zemeckis’s seminal 1988 comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the second-most nominated live-action/animated hybrid with six nominations and four wins, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Film Editing, as well as a Special Achievement Award. Additional nominees include 1971’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1946’s Song of the South, and the Disney anthology films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.
For the record, The Day the Earth Blew Up was also released by Ketchup Entertainment, which reportedly paid $50 million to rescue Coyote vs. Acme after former Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav shelved its release in 2023. That notoriety ended up benefiting the movie when it finally arrived in theaters in August, with eager audiences driving it to a $123 million worldwide gross. (Warner Bros. has since been acquired by Skydance Media.)
The behind the scenes drama could also give Coyote vs. Acme a serious boost with Academy voters eager to put their own period on the end of the Zaslav era, not to mention the larger corporate consolidation happening in Hollywood — a subject that the film skewers. Right now, Gold Derby’s expert prognosticators have Wildwood and Toy Story 5 in a dead heat for the No. 1 spot with the French animated feature Iron Boy a distant third.
While Wildwood has recently seen a minor uptick in the Best Picture race, the film’s solid, but not spectacular, opening weekend launch — along with some complaints about its length and PG-13-rated violence — could present headwinds in the weeks ahead. In that event, the continued popularity and goodwill around Coyote vs. Acme might make it the preferred alternative to another Toy Story coronation after the third and fourth installments previously won Best Animated Feature statuettes.
As Bugs Bunny might say… ain’t I a spoiler?
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