No Big Deal, Just Jamie Foxx Celebrating With An Oscar For Pixar's Soul

Joe walking across the street in Pixar's Soul

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Last night's Academy Awards show wasn't without its share of surprises, but one award that likely wasn't too much of a shock was the Oscar for Best Animated Feature going to Soul. While there were some absolutely solid contenders going up against Soul, it really seemed like the Pixar film about finding the real meaning in life was the movie to beat, there were many who thought that film should have been nominated for Best Picture. And while the win may have been expected, that didn't make it any less sweet for those involved, including a very happy Jamie Foxx.

Jamie Foxx played Soul's lead role of Joe Gardner, and while he didn't technically win the Oscar for Soul, he was no less thrilled at the film's big night. Foxx posted an image to Instagram last night of himself holding Soul's Oscar, and looking like just as thrilled as anybody. Check it out.

Jamie Foxx holding an Oscar

Jamie Foxx has actually won an Oscar for Best Actor before, and you'd think that's what he was holding here considering the look on his face seems to be one of complete triumph. Not that Jamie Foxx shouldn't be proud. He played the lead in the movie and played a significant part in the movie's success. Technically the Oscar goes to the producers of the film, which in this case are Dana Murray and Pete Docter. But as with every movie, these things are group efforts and everybody does their part, so everybody gets to be proud.

Soul is currently available on Disney+. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.

Animated movies are these massive things that take years to complete and the hard work of so many people including, as producer Dana Murray pointed out during her acceptance speech, so many who had to do the work from home when the global pandemic shutdown the Pixar offices and the crew spent the last seven months of production working remotely.

It was a good Oscar night for Soul overall. In addition to the award for Best Animated Feature, it also took home the Oscar for Best Original Score, won by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste. The movie was also nominated for Best Sound, but it lost that award to Sound of Metal.

There were a lot of movies that got to celebrate wins last night, Nomadland was technically the big winner of the night, but it only took home three awards, so the love was spread around pretty evenly. Soul was one of six movies to win two awards and another seven went home with a single award.

Soul was a great film in my opinion, and in many ways it was exactly the movie that many of us needed; a movie reaffirming life itself when many were unable to experience the best parts of that life. But Soul made us feel hope again, and for that alone it deserves an award.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.