Should there be an Oscar for Best Voice in an Animated Film?

For Tom Hanks, the voices of animation deserve better than a dedicated Oscar. The actor believes that vocal performances should be able to compete for acting Oscars.

Should we create an Oscar for best vocal performance in an animated film?

The debate comes up regularly in Hollywood. But for Tom Hanks, the answer is no. In full promotion of Toy Story 5the actor explained to Gold Derby that he didn’t see the point in adding a new category to the Oscars. According to him, dubbing actors should simply be able to be rewarded in the already existing categories: those of Best Actor and Best Actress.

“I think there are already enough categories”he believes. “The truth is that a voice actor can absolutely win the Oscar for Best Actor. It all comes down to one question: Did the performance move you?“

To support his reasoning, Tom Hanks cites in particular the case of Andy Serkis. Although the actor does not physically appear on screen in many of his most famous roles – notably Gollum in Lord of the Rings – according to him it provides all the raw material for interpretation.

“If spectators are moved, it is because they are touched by the performance of a human being. That’s all that should matter“.

Double winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor for Philadelphia And Forest GumpTom Hanks knows the subject well. He himself was nominated for the Annie Awards in 1995 for lending his voice to Woody in Toy Story.

Yet in nearly a century of existence, the Academy has never nominated a purely vocal performance in one of the four major performance categories. The most often cited case remains that of Scarlett Johansson in Her. His disembodied performance sparked a strong campaign of support during awards season, but fell short of an Oscar nomination. The same debate exists around performance capture. Despite repeated calls from figures like Andy Serkis or James Cameron, the Academy has never rewarded this type of interpretation in the acting categories. A position regularly contested by the artists concerned. In 2024, Zoe Saldaña particularly regretted that the performances achieved for the saga Avatar continue to be ignored by voters.

For Tom Hanks, the solution is not to multiply trophies. It would simply be enough for voters to finally consider that a great performance remains a great performance, even when it only comes through the voice.