If you’re an animation nerd like me, this year’s Oscar race is a delight, filled to the brim with quality films. Here are my predictions for both the Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short Film Oscars.

Best Animated Feature

Talk about Best Picture all you want, but frankly, the 2010 race for Best Animated Feature is equally tough, if not tougher, than this year’s expanded Best Picture. All five of this year’s nominees have their merits.

It’s worth noting that 2002 was the last year five films were nominated for Best Animated, with Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” sweeping a fairly weak field. This year, Miyazaki’s most recent film, “Ponyo,” was left out of the running — an interesting decision, but one I can understand. “Ponyo” is by no means Miyazaki’s strongest feature.

“Coraline,” though, may be one of Henry Selick’s best. Neil Gaiman’s brand of subtle, creeping horror perfectly marries Selick’s macabre whimsy. While he wasn’t heavily involved, “Coraline” also suffers from Gaiman’s main fault: putting more balls in the air than the screen can handle. Selick’s visuals are amazing, but when he occasionally chooses to sacrifice story for visuals, the whole movie suffers.

The other stop-motion film selected, Wes Anderson’s “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” is as fantastic as its name implies. I waited with baited breath for “Fox” to come to the Cobb, and I absolutely adored it. I’m not a Wes Anderson devotee, but I and many others appear to be suckers for the film’s quirky art direction, antiquated look, and color palate. However, it just doesn’t cohere as seamlessly as “Coraline” or even “Princess and the Frog.”

“Princess and the Frog” is, of course, the obligatory Disney nomination. My first reaction was, “Well, it’s a nice A for effort.” And now that I’ve seen all of its competition, my opinion remains unchanged. “Princess and the Frog” is as good a return to traditional illustrated animation as Disney could ask for, and an excellent vehicle for the company’s first black heroine. If “Princess and the Frog” were up in a year with weaker competitors, it would have a legitimate shot. Up against, well, “Up” or “Coraline,” however, “Princess and the Frog” just can’t get far enough.

But all of these films are dwarfed under the shadow of this year’s presumed champion, Pixar’s “Up.” Does “Up” deserve the award? Certainly. “Up” is well-directed, well-cast and well-animated. It’s alternately humorous, whimsical and touching. In short, it’s an ideal Pixar film.

But it’s not the film I’m picking.

Back in 2003, I was lucky enough to catch a showing of “The Triplets of Belleville” at the Bama Theatre. I treasure the memory, for “Belleville” was the first film to teach me the power of animation. Allegory, surrealism, absurdist imagery —“Belleville” had it all, and it all blew me away. I knew “Finding Nemo” would win the 2003 Best Animated Oscar, but I still rooted for “Belleville.”

So it is this year that I’m picking another underdog dark horse to invoke a similar wonder: Tomm Moore’s “Secret of the Kells.”

Scott McCloud, in “Understanding Comics,” points out that if he were to define comics as pictures placed juxtaposed in sequence, then films could technically be considered comics. “Kells” is the first film I’ve seen to truly embody this notion. Based in part on the illuminated manuscripts of the Irish Book of Kells, each frame is lushly laid out, a painting in motion. The entire film is saturated with sharp greens, greys and blues.

The academy has rewarded Pixar’s tenacity and drive through years of industry doubt four times. Maybe now it’s time to reward another small, talented and tenacious studio, Cartoon Saloon, for proving traditional animation can still push boundaries.

As to the chances for “Kells,” though, I’ll quote Neil Gaiman, “No. Not a hope in hell.”

Best Animated Short Film

The short category provides an interesting contrast to Best Animated for its conspicuous lack of Pixar. Instead, Aardman Animations’s latest “Wallace and Gromit” short, “A Matter of Loaf and Death” looks like the favorite. It’s a fun little adventure, with hapless Wallace falling for a woman with a few rolling pins to grind.

Both “French Roast” and “The Lady and the Reaper” are silent pieces, relying on visual gags and well-timed physical comedy. However, there’s a sense of sameness about both, with “French Roast” coming out as slightly more defined. “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” amuses as an alternative take on the fairly tale, but it it’s far too short and condensed compared to the competition.

I’m going to go with another dark horse again, though: the French satire “Logorama,” which is a daring feature, based around a world populated entirely by corporate logos. By such clever turns as transforming Ronald McDonald into a hairtrigger, foul-mouthed armed robber, “Logorama” reorients the way corporate branding has come to serve, at times, as stand-ins for communication and interaction with others.