I will once again be begging The Academy to nominate an anime film this year. THE FIRST SLAM DUNK is gorgeously animated to show the physicality and speed of the game of basketball and also strongly capture human emotion with its mixture of hand-drawn and CGI styles. It's brilliantly structured, taking place over the course of a single HS playoff game, with a deeply moving core story about overcoming grief and chasing dreams mixed with exhilarating detailed on-court action. It is in fact, well, a slam dunk.
Click here to listen to my spoiler-free review on Feelin' Film Podcast