The Academy has announced a list of 18 qualifying titles for this year’s Best Animated Feature Film race. Among the films on the list is Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin,” the sequel “Happy Feet Two” and Disney’s “Mars Needs Moms.”

Those three are significant to note because their use of performance-capture technology left many wondering whether they would make the cut. But qualifying is only half the battle. We can safely assume “Mars Needs Moms” won’t tickle the branch’s fancy, but will bias against the technology still get in the way of the other two during the nominations process if they do become eligible, specifically Spielberg’s hopeful? We’ll see.

Other films submitted include foreign language entry “Alois Nebel” and a film called “Wrinkles,” which is the one out-of-the-blue title, I guess. (This is the first I’ve heard of it.) Singapore foreign hopeful “Tatsumi” was thought to maybe be in the hunt, but I guess not.

(UPDATE: Okay, so it turns out this is the actual list of qualifying films after all, and it’s merely worded strangely. All the films on the list have been approved as animation and will qualify. The press release was worded with the “submissions” language as a caveat that films still set for qualifying runs could fall out if they don’t follow through on that. That’s all. Sorry for the confusion.)

The rest of the list has pretty much been expected for a while now, per our Contenders page. They are, via AMPAS press release:

“The Adventures of Tintin”
“Alois Nebel”
“Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”
“Arthur Christmas”
“Cars 2”
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Gnomeo & Juliet”
“Happy Feet Two”
“Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Mars Needs Moms”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
“Rio”
“The Smurfs”
“Winnie the Pooh”
“Wrinkles”

Per the press release, at least eight eligible animated features must be theatrically released in Los Angeles County within the calendar year for the Best Animated Feature Film category to be activated.