Soul (Disney-Pixar) came up the big winner at the 48th Annie Awards honoring the best in animation, followed closely in the feature tally by Wolfwalkers (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS) .
Soul scored seven Annie Awards during Friday evening’s (4/16) virtual ceremony, taking Best Feature, Character Animation (Michal Makarewicz), Music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste), Storyboarding (Trevor Jimenez), Writing (Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers), Best FX (Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller) and Editorial (Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk).
Wolfwalkers garnered five Annies for Best Independent Feature, Character Design (Federico Pirovano), Direction (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart), Production Design (Maria Pareja, Ross Stewart, Tomm Moore) and Voice Acting (Eva Whittaker as the voice of Mebh Óg MacTíre).
On the television side, among the leading winners was Hilda (Hilda Productions Limited, Netflix) which earned distinction with three Annies–for Best TV/Media Children, Best Character Animation in TV/Media, and Best Editorial in TV/Media. Next with a pair of honors was Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal: Coven of the Damned (Cartoon Network Studios) which topped the Best General Audience Animated TV/Media Production and Best TV/Media Direction categories.
“This year was a challenge, in many ways, for all of us,” remarked Frank Gladstone, ASIFA’s executive director. “Especially after deciding to go to a virtual award ceremony, we did not know what to expect. To our surprise, we had more submissions this year than we have ever had and, now that we are streaming the Annies worldwide, we are also hoping for= the biggest audience ever.”
Juried awards were presented for the following: The Winsor McCay Award for career contributions to the art of animation were presented to three recipients–animator Willie Ito, designer Sue Nichols (posthumously) and animator/director Bruce Smith. The June Foray Award for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation was awarded to animator and art director, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi.
The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement that has made a significant impact on the art and industry of animation was presented to Epic Games for its Unreal Engine; and The Special Achievement Award recognizing the unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation was presented to the documentary Howard (Stone Circle Pictures).
The Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 36 categories, and have often been a predictor of the annual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Here’s a category-by-category rundown of the evening’s winners:
48th Annie Awards Recipients
BEST FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST INDIE FEATURE
Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS
BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION
The Snail and the Whale
Magic Light Pictures
BEST SHORT SUBJECT
Souvenir Souvenir
Blast Production
BEST SPONSORED
There’s a Monster in my Kitchen
Cartoon Saloon, Mother
BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOL
The Adventures of Paddington
Episode: Paddington Digs a Tunnel to Peru
Blue-Zoo Animation Studio and Nickelodeon Animation Studio
BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDREN
Hilda
Episode: Chapter 9: The Deerfox
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
BEST TV/MEDIA – GENERAL AUDIENCE
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Episode: Coven Of The Damned
Cartoon Network Studios
BEST STUDENT FILM
La Bestia
School: Gobelins, l’école de l’image
Student directors: Marlijn Van Nuenen, Ram Tamez, Alfredo Gerard Kuttikatt
BEST FX FOR TV/MEDIA
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
Episode: Welcome to Jurassic World
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
FX Production Company: Dreamworks Animation and CGCG Inc.
Emad Khalili, Ivan Wang, Chris Wombold, Kyle Goertz, Kathy D. Tran
BEST FX FOR FEATURE
Soul
Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios
FX Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios
Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV/MEDIA
Hilda
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks David Laliberté
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Michal Makarewicz
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTION
The Mandalorian
Production Company: Lucasfilm
FX Production Company: Image Engine
Nathan Fitzgerald, Leo Ito, Chris Rogers, Eung Ho Lo, Emily Luk
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAME
Marvels Spider-Man Miles Morales
Insomniac Games
Brian Wyser, Michael Yosh, Danny Garnett, David Hancock
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Amphibia
Episode: The Shut-In!
Disney TV Animation
Joe Sparrow
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATURE
Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS Federico Pirovano
BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIA
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Episode: Plague Of Madness
Cartoon Network Studios
Genndy Tartakovsky
BEST DIRECTION – FEATURE
Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart
BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIA
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Episode: Victory and Death
Lucasfilm Animation
Kevin Kiner
BEST MUSIC – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Shooom’s Odyssey
Picolo Pictures
Julien Bisaro
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE
Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS María Pareja, Ross Stewart, Tomm Moore
BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA
Looney Tunes Cartoons
Episode: Big League Beast / Firehouse Frenzy Warner Bros. Animation
Andrew Dickman
BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Trevor Jimenez
BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIA
Tales of Arcadia: Wizards
Episode: Our Final Act
DreamWorks Animation
David Bradley (Merlin)
BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATURE
Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS
Eva Whittaker (Mebh Óg MacTíre)
BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA
Big Mouth
Episode: The New Me
Netflix
Andrew Goldberg, Patti Harrison
BEST WRITING – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers
BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA
Hilda
Episode: Chapter 9: The Deerfox
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks John McKinnon
BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk
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