The Anime News Network is reporting that Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy will be released to North American theaters in October to qualify for this year's Oscar awards. Otomo is best known as the director of the cult classic Akira and this film has been hugely anticipated for years.

Steamboy is being handled by Sony and between this news and Dreamworks' already stated intention to push Innocence for an Oscar this means that Disney is going to be in the unfamiliar territory of having two major studios gunning to take them out of the animation awards at the end of the year.

Check out the Japanese trailer here.