In one of the best years for animated films in a long time, one might have thought that the Annie Awards would pick something a bit more ambitious than the latest Pixar movie, which is always a shoe-in for Best Animated Feature at the Annies and the Oscars. And if Pixar’s latest hadn’t beenCoco, one of the best movies that the studio has released to date, I might be genuinely upset about the fact that Pixar once again took home 11 awards from the 45th annual Annie Awards in a stunning sweep in features. Thankfully,Cocois neither a lazily made nor a trivially written movie, and the wins are more than deserved.
Even better news from the Annie Awards came in the trophies handed out beyondCoco’s triumph, such as forThe Breadwinner,In This Corner of the World, and, in the effects category,War for the Planet of the Apes. On the TV side, major wins went to the likes of Adult Swim’s groundbreakingRick and Morty, as well as the lovely latest season ofSamurai Jack, and Netflix’sTrollhunters, which represents another triumph forGuillermo del Toroafter his big DGA win last night. In video games, the truly astoundingCupheadtook the big prize overUncharted: The Lost LegacyandHorizon Zero Dawn. You can take a look at the (extensive) list of winners below, but more importantly, you should get on your streaming sites and watch some of these wondrous productions for yourself.
Here’s the full list of winners from the 45th annual Annie Awards:
Best Animated Feature
Coco- Pixar Animation Studios
Best Animated Feature-Independent
In This Corner of the World- Taro Maki, GENCO, Inc. and Masao Maruyama, MAPPA Co., Ltd
Best Animated Special Production
Revolting Rhymes-Magic Light Pictures
Best Animated Short Subject
Dear Basketball- Glen Keane Productions, Kobe Studios, Believe Entertainment Group
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial
June- Broad Reach Pictures/Chromosphere/Lyft
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children
Octonauts/ Episode: “Operation Deep Freeze” - Vampire Squid Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media company, in association with Brown Bag Films
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children
We Bare Bears /Episode: “Panda’s Art” - Cartoon Network Animation Studios
Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Rick and Morty/ Episode: “303 – Pickle Rick” - Williams Street Productions
Best Student Film
Poles Apart- Director: Paloma Baeza; Producer: Ser En Low, All Student Crew
Animated Effects in an Animated Production
Coco -Effects Artist: Shaun Galinak; Jason Johnston; Carl Kaphan; Effects Lead: Dave Hale; Keith Daniel Klohn
Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Trollhunters/ Episode: “205 – Homecoming”-Character Animator: Bruno Chiou; Yi-Fan Cho (Character: Blinky, Dictatious, Aaarrrgghh!!); Lead Animator: Kevin Jong; Chun-Jung Chu (Character: Blinky, Dictatious, Aaarrrgghh!!)
Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production
Coco- Animator: John Chun Chiu Lee (Character: All characters)
Character Animation in a Live Action Production
War for the Planet of the Apes- Animation Supervisor: Daniel Barrett; Sidney Kombo Kintombo; Emile Ghorayeb; Lead Motion Editor: Luisma Lavin Peredo; Lead Facial Modeller: Alessandro Bonora
Character Animation in a Video Game
Cuphead- Lead Animator: Hanna Abi-Hanna (Characters: The Devil, Grim Matchstick, Beppi The Clown, Werner Werman)
Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Samurai Jack/ Episode: “XCVI” - Character Design: Craig Kellman (Character: Various)
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Coco- Character Art Director: Daniel Arriaga (Character: All characters); Additional Character Art Direction: Daniela Strijleva (Character: All characters); Character Design/Sculptor: Greg Dykstra (Character: All characters); Character Modeller: Alonso Martinez (Character: All characters); Character Designer: Zaruhi Galstyan (Character: All characters)
Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Disney Mickey Mouse/ Episode: “The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!” - Director: Dave Wasson; Director: Eddie Trigueros; Director: Alonso Ramirez-Ramos
