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LOS ANGELES — A record 20 films have been submitted for best animated feature at the Academy Awards.

As long as at least 16 films qualify, there will be five nominees in the feature-length animation category.

The category has had only three nominees most years, but 2009 has been a prolific year for animation. The only previous year when there were five nominees came in 2002, when 17 animated films were submitted.

Submissions include a wide variety of styles, including the computer animation of such hits as "Up," ''Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and "Monsters vs. Aliens"; the stop-motion animation of "Coraline," ''Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Mary and Max"; and the hand-drawn animation of "The Princess and the Frog" and "Ponyo."

Other films submitted are "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," ''Astro Boy," ''Battle for Terra," ''Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," ''Disney's A Christmas Carol," ''The Dolphin — Story of a Dreamer," ''The Missing Lynx," ''9," ''Planet 51," ''The Secret of Kells," ''Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" and "A Town Called Panic."

Some films have yet to complete a weeklong theatrical run in Los Angeles to qualify for the Oscars. Academy rules for the category also state that a "significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time."

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