Coco wins Best Animated Feature Oscar

Pixar’s Coco took home the Best Animated Feature award at tonight’s Oscars ceremony. It’s the ninth Best Animated Feature win for Pixar, out of the company’s 11 nominations.

Out last November, Coco follows Miguel Rivera, a young Mexican boy, on the adventure of a lifetime. Miguel travels to the Land of the Dead and seeks out the mystery at the heart of his family, all so that he might follow his own dream of becoming a musician. The movie’s heartfelt story and rich visuals, painstakingly researched and realized from Mexican history and folklore — particularly the tradition of El Día de los Muertos — seems to have resonated with Academy voters.

Coco was competing in a somewhat strange field for the Best Animated Feature award, thanks to a new rule change that allows filmmakers who aren’t animators to nominate for the category. The Pixar film was up against two well-received, 2-D animated small studio films — Loving Vincent and The Breadwinner — and two panned, big budget CGI family films — Ferdinand and The Boss Baby.

Coco also took home the Oscar for Best Original Song, beating out nominations from Call Me By Your Name, The Greatest Showman, Marshall and Mudbound.