With the Oscars coming up this weekend I wanted to take a moment to recognize 2016’s cats in film. In 2015 four Oscar-nominated films featured cat actors (cactors?). Inarguably, it was the character of Bleeker from Gone Girl who received the most attention.
2016 seems to be light in regards to nominated films with cat characters – main or otherwise. Only the tuxedo from 20th Century Woman (nominated for original screenplay) comes to mind.
But that’s not to say there weren’t other films in 2016 that not only featured cats, but depended on them for their existence. In my humble opinion, the best part of watching A Street Cat Named Bob was the cat’s performance (or cats’ performances). His (I’m assuming given it’s a ginger) range of expression was truly amazing! And Keanu was certainly not a movie I didn’t expect to enjoy half as much as I did!
I have to take this moment to reiterate my belief cats (all animal actors) and their trainers deserve recognition in both film and television. Particularly if the entire success of a movie rests on the performance of that cat (or cats since as with children, you usually need more than one cat to pull of a single role!).
Several movies in 2016 had cats in the starring role
Can you think of other movies (non-animated) from 2016 that had cats in them? Do you have an all time favorite movie that had a cat as a main or supporting character? Leave a comment and let us know!
If you’d like to read a bit more about cats in movies and the men and women who train them, check out my other posts:
- Meet Larry Payne, the man behind the cat(s) in both Keanu and Gone Girl
- Meet Dawn Hessler (Barkan) who’s trained cats in several movies you’re sure to recognize!
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