Netflix was the big winner at the 47th Annual Annie Awards™ Saturday evening (1/25), garnering top honors in 18 categories, including Best Feature for Klaus, and Best Independent Feature for I Lost My Body.
The Annie Awards™ honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in animation, and have often been a predictor of the annual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Among other honors received by Netflix fare were: Character Animation in an Animated Feature for Sergio Martins on Klaus; Character Design in an Animated Television/Media Production for Keiko Murayama on the basis of Carmen Sandiego; Directing in An Animated Feature for Sergio Pablos on Klaus; Music in an Animated Television/Media Production for Rob Cairns on Love, Death & Robots; Writing in an Animated Feature for I Lost My Body; and Editorial in an Animated Feature for Klaus.
How to Train Your Dragon Homecoming (DreamWorks Animation) won Best Animated Special Production; Best Animated Short Subject went to Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs); Best Animated TV/Media Commercial was “The Mystical Journey of Jimmy Page’s ’59 Telecaster” (Nexus Studios); Best General Audience Animated TV/Media Production was BoJack Horseman Eps. "The New Client" (Torante Productions, LLC for Netflix); Best Animated TV/Media Production for Children distinction went to Disney Mickey Mouse Eps. "Carried Away" (Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel; Best Animated TV/Media Production was for Preschool Children Ask the StoryBots Eps. "Why Do We Have To Recycle?" (JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix); and Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production was an honor bestowed upon "Avengers: Endgame" (Weta Digital).
“For years, we’ve described ASIFA-Hollywood (which presents the Annies) as a sort of United Nations of Animation. This year, that comparison rings even more clearly,” remarked Frank Gladstone, ASIFA’s executive director. “With nearly 2,000 submissions from productions worldwide, the award is becoming much more an international event. Many more films, many more artists and many new names we are learning to pronounce!”
The evening began with a special tribute to Richard Williams, Canadian–British animator, director, and writer, best known as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), for which he won two of his three Academy Awards (the third for A Christmas Carol in 1973), while also known for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993).
Juried Awards were presented honoring unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation. Three Winsor McCay Award recipients were selected by the ASIFA-Hollywood Board of Directors for their exemplary industry careers: Satoshi Kon (posthumously), Japanese manga artist, director, animator and screenwriter on the now classic films Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika; Henry Selick, stop motion director, producer and writer, best known for directing the stop-motion films The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline; and Ron Clements and John Musker, animators, animation directors, screenwriters, producers and one of Walt Disney Animation Studio’s leading director teams with nearly 40 years of animation credits, from The Little Mermaid to Moana, among many others.
The June Foray Award was presented to Jeanette Bonds, writer, independent animator, and co-founder and director of GLAS Animation; and the Ub Iwerks Award was presented to Jim Blinn, computer scientist who first became widely known for his early work in computer animation, and as a graphics expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), particularly on the pre-encounter animations for the Voyager project.
Here’s a category-by-category rundown of this year’s Annie winners:
Best Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Best Indie Feature
I Lost My Body
Best Special Production
How to Train Your Dragon Homecoming
DreamWorks Animation
Best Short Subject
Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days
Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs
Best VR
Bonfire
Baobab Studios
Best Commercial
The Mystical Journey of Jimmy Page’s ‘59 Telecaster
Nexus Studios
Best TV/Media – Preschool
Ask the Storybots
JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix
Best TV/Media – Children
Disney Mickey Mouse
Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel
Best TV/Media – General Audience
BoJack Horseman
Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
Best Student Film
The Fox & The Pigeon
Michelle Chua,
Sheridan College
Students: Michelle Chua, Aileen Dewhurst, Sharon Gabriella, Viktor Ivanovski, Sang Lee, Tyler Pacana, Sikyung Kevin Sung, Morgan Thompson, Matt Walton, Steven Wang, Chelsea van Tol
Best FX for TV/Media
Love, Death & Robots
Blur for Netflix
Nominees: Viktor Németh, Szabolcs Illés, Ádám Sipos , Vladimir Zhovna
Best FX for Feature
Frozen 2
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Nominees: Benjamin Fiske, Alex Moaveni, Jesse Erickson, Dimitre Berberov, Kee Nam Suong
Best Character Animation – TV/Media
His Dark Materials
BBC Studios
Nominees: Aulo Licinio
Best Character Animation – Animated Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Nominees: Sergio Martins
Best Character Animation – Live Action
Avengers: Endgame
Weta Digital
Nominees: Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, Sam Sharplin, Keven Norris, Tim Teramoto, Jacob Luamanuvae-Su’a
Best Character Animation – Video Game
Unruly Heroes
Magic Design Studios
Nominees: Sebastien Parodi, Nicolas Leger
Best Character Design – TV/Media
Carmen Sandiego
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and DHX Media for Netflix
Nominees: Keiko Murayama
Best Character Design – Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Nominees: Torsten Schrank
Best Direction – TV/Media
Disney Mickey Mouse
Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel
Nominees: Alonso Ramirez Ramos
Best Direction – Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Nominees: Sergio Pablos
Best Music – TV/Media
Love, Death & Robots
Blur for Netflix
Nominees: Rob Cairns
Best Music – Feature
I Lost My Body
Xilam for Netflix
Nominees: Dan Levy
Best Production Design – TV/Media
Love, Death & Robots
Blur for Netflix
Nominees: Alberto Mielgo
Best Production Design – Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Nominees: Szymon Biernacki, Marcin Jakubowski
Best Storyboarding – TV/Media
Carmen Sandiego
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and DHX Media for Netflix
Nominees: Kenny Park
Best Storyboarding – Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Nominees: Sergio Pablos
Best Voice Acting – TV/Media
Bob’s Burgers
20th Century FOX / Bento Box Entertainment
Nominees: H. Jon Benjamin
Best Voice Acting – Feature
Frozen 2
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Nominees: Josh Gad
Best Writing – TV/Media
Tuca & Bertie
Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
Nominees: Shauna McGarry
Best Writing – Feature
I Lost My Body
Xilam for Netflix
Nominees: Jérémy Clapin, Guillaume Laurant
Best Editorial – TV/Media
Love, Death & Robots
Blur for Netflix
Nominees: Bo Juhl, Stacy Auckland, Valerian Zamel
Best Editorial – Feature
Klaus
Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Nominees: Pablo García Revert
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More