Why Are Voice-Over and Mo-Cap Actors Not Nominated For Oscars?
My question is this: Why can actors covered in considerable makeup and costuming be fair game for Oscar voters, while actors who either provide their prodigious talents to animated work, or those who perform computer-manipulated characterizations, have been completely ignored?

I am not implying a desire for yet another Oscars category, though that inclusion would be better than no recognition at all. No, I am calling for an across-the-board serious consideration of all performances within all four existing performance categories.

The following are among the most iconic and criminally ignored performances in Oscar history …

Andy Serkis as Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011), “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014), and “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017)

“That was not a performance,” said one angry and very prominent older filmmaker to me over dinner. “That was a computer show.”

An hour prior, we had exited the magnificent “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” My friend hated it. I thought he was out of his mind, despite his bonafides. Still do.

“It was the film and performance of the year so far,” I countered.

“Computers should stay far away from movies,” he said. “And before you say it, Serkis will never be nominated for an Oscar, and he doesn’t deserve one.”

(For a brief history of motion capture, aka “mo-cap” technology, see my Medium article, below.)

My filmmaker friend has been in large part responsible for some of pop-culture’s more enduring moments, and for an Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) member his thoughts are, stunningly, in the majority. Despite the occasional fan outcry for a new Oscar category to honor voice-over performances or actors, to date nothing is on the table.

However, utilizing motion capture technology, as popularized in 2009’s “Avatar” and here taken to another level, Andy Serkis delivered a performance for the ages, one that ranged from heartbreak to immense strength. Caesar was a veritable lost child in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” before fulfilling his destiny as a highly-effective leader in the subsequent films. To watch the character is to cry with him, and struggle for justice alongside him.

The fact that the ape-actors in these films, including Serkis, wore tracking dots so a computer could fill in their ape design later is the greatest source of misunderstanding when it comes to such performances. Serkis’ performance in the first film was delivered with soulful eyes and commitment to physicality. He did not utter his first word until the latter third of the film, and so the actor’s challenge was to inform the character with humanity and gravitas without speaking. Once he spoke, from then forward in the series, he was a leader who embodied the very concept of respect.

And most of us believed every minute of it.

Serkis absolutely deserved Academy recognition.
['Joel Eisenberg']
['Pixar', 'Technology', 'Movies', 'Animation', 'Oscars']