Twenty-one animated features, ranging alphabetically from Adventures in Zambezia to Zarafa, have been submitted for Academy Award consideration. Under Academy rules, since there are more than 16 films submitted, a maximum of five films may be nominated when nominees are announced Jan. 10, The Hollywood Reporter said.

This year's submissions include entries from major animation houses like Pixar's Brave, Disney's Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph, DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rise of the Guardians, Fox/Blue Sky Studio's Ice Age: Continental Drift, Universal/Illumination's Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Sony Animation's Hotel Translyvania and Focus/Laika's ParaNorman.

The entries also include a bumper crop of indie and foreign-made animated efforts. Adventures in Zambezia, for example, hails from South Africa and its characters are birds that live near Africa's Victoria Falls. Zarafa is a French-made film about a young boy who escapes slave traders and befriends a giraffe.

The submissions will be reviewed by the Academy's animation branch to determine that they have met all the eligibility requirements and will be viewed by a screening committee or committees which will rate each film on a score of six to ten. Those movies rating an average score of 7.5 will be eligible for nomination.