We’ve been hot on the animated feature trail as of late, keeping a keen eye on the number of films that have qualified, plan to qualify, or have opted out of qualifying, the magic number of 16 titles (which would warrant a five-nominee slate rather than three) being the key throughout.

Earlier this week Raul Garcia’s “The Missing Lynx: Paws on the Run” was submitted for Academy consideration and is in the midst of its required Los Angeles qualifying run in Encino.  Now, Steve Pond reports that another film has joined the party, one that was, for a time, considered out: “A Town Called Panic.”

Screen International’s Allan Hunter called the film a “blast of freewheeling inventiveness,” while Variety’s Leslie Felperin noted that the stop-motion effort “proves you don’t need fancy CGI techniques, 3-D, or stunt voice casting to make a sparkly little gem.”  The film was reviewed extensively out of Fantastic Fest last month and plays AFI Fest later this week.

Writes Pond:

Initially, “A Town Called Panic” appeared not to qualify, because its U.S. distributor, Zeitgeist Films, had booked it for a week in New York but had no plans to show the film in Los Angeles County, which is a necessary step for Oscar eligibility.

But filmmakers Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar didn’t need Zeitgeist to submit the film – Oscar rules require the submission forms only be signed by the film’s producers, and I hear that Aubier and Patar did just that.

In addition, Laemmle Theaters confirms that the film is now booked for a one-week engagement at Laemmle’s Claremont 5 – a low-profile, out-of-the-way theater, to be sure, but one frequently used for Oscar-qualifying runs. It’ll play there between December 11 and December 17.

That should bring the list up to 17 and a nice buffer, in case something else falls out of the picture.

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