Paramount Pictures ‘Rango’ took top honors as the Best Animated Feature at the 39th Annual Annie Awards, Saturday, February 4 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. With the expanded list of categories from 25 to 28, and the addition of two new categories – Editing and Best Animated Special Production — this year’s show honored more nominees than in the past. The newly created ‘Member’s Favorite’ award voted on by the entire ASIFA-Hollywood community also went to ‘Rango.’
Newcomer Minkyu Lee’s ‘Adam and Dog’ won for Best Short Subject while Psyop’s Twinings ‘Sea’ was selected Best Television Commercial out of agency AMV BBDO, London. ‘The Simpsons’ took Best Animated TV Production and Shadow Planet Production’s ‘Insanely Twisted’ was selected as Best Video Game.
Honored with the Winsor McCay award were Walt Peregoy, Borge Ring and the late Ronald Searle. The Winsor McCay Award stands as one of the highest honors given to an individual in the animation industry in recognition for career contributions to the art of animation.
Art Leonardi was honored with the June Foray award which is presented to an individual who has given significant and benevolent contributions to the art and industry of animation.
Often a predictor of the annual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 28 categories ranging from best feature, production design, character animation, and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, music, editing and voice acting. Entries submitted for consideration were from productions that originally aired, were exhibited in an animation festival or commercially released between January 1 and December 31, 2011.
The Annies are presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, a professional organization dedicated to promoting the art of animation and celebrating the people who create it. Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest chapter of the international organization ASIFA, supports a range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Archive, animation film preservation, special events, classes and screenings.
Here’s a rundown of this year’s Annie winners:
PRODUCTION CATEGORIES
Best Animated Feature
–Rango — Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production
–Kung Fu Panda — Secrets of the Masters — DreamWorks Animation
Best Animated Short Subject
–Adam and Dog — Minkyu Lee
Best Animated Television Commercial
–Twinings “Sea” — Psyop
Best General Audience Animated TV Production
–The Simpsons — Gracie Films
Best Animated Television Production – Preschool
–Disney Jake and the Never Land Pirates — Disney Television Animation
Best Animated Television Production — Children
–The Amazing World of Gumball — Cartoon Network in Association with Dandelion Studios, Boulder Media & Studio Soi
Best Animated Video Game
–Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet — Shadow Planet Productions, Gagne/Fuelcell
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES
Animated Effects in an Animated Production
–Kevin Romond “Tintin” — Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
–Florent Andorra “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” — Industrial Light & Magic
Character Animation in a Television Production
–Tony Smeed “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Character Animation in a Feature Production
–Jeff Gabor “Rio” — Blue Sky Studios
Character Animation in a Live Action Production
–Eric Reynolds “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — 20th Century Fox
Character Design in a Television Production
–Bill Schwab “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Character Design in a Feature Production
–Mark “Crash” McCreery “Rango” — Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
Directing in a Television Production
–Matthew Nastuk “The Simpsons” — Gracie Films
Directing in a Feature Production
–Jennifer Yuh Nelson “Kung Fu Panda 2” — DreamWorks Animation
Music in a Television Production
–Grace Potter, Michael Giacchino “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Music in a Feature Production–John Williams “Tintin” — Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
Production Design in a Television Production
–Mark Bodnar, Chris Tsirgiotis, Sue Mondt and Daniel Elson “Secret Mountain Fort Awesome” — Cartoon Network Studios
Production Design in a Feature Production
–Raymond Zibach “Kung Fu Panda 2” — DreamWorks Animation
Storyboarding in a Television Production
–Brian Kesinger “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Storyboarding in a Feature Production
–Jeremy Spears “Winnie The Pooh” — Walt Disney Animation Studios
Voice Acting in a Television Production
–Jeff Bennett as Kowalski “Penguins of Madagascar” — Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation
Voice Acting in a Feature Production
–Bill Nighy as Grandsanta “Arthur Christmas” — Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
Writing in a Television Production
–Carolyn Omine “The Simpsons -Treehouse of Horror XXII” — Gracie Films
Writing in a Feature Production
–John Logan, Gore Verbinski and James Byrkit “Rango” — Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Productions
Editing in Television Production
–Ted Machold, Jeff Adams, Doug Tiano, Bob Tomlin “Penguins of Madagascar” — Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation
Editing in a Feature Production
–Craig Wood, A.C.E. “Rango” — Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present
A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
JURIED AWARDS
Winsor McCay Award –Walt Peregoy, Borge Ring, Ronald Searle
June Foray — Art Leonardi
Special Achievement — Depth Analysis
