The Oscar-frontrunning Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was the big winner at ASIFA-Hollywood’s 51st Annie Awards (held February 17 at UCLA’s Royce Hall), grabbing seven awards, topped by best animated feature. As a 66 percent Oscar predictor, the Annie win bodes well for Sony and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
The other “Spider-Verse” awards were for FX, character design, direction (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson), music (Daniel Pemberton, Metro Boomin), production design, and editorial.
The Oscar-nominated dark horse, “Robot Dreams” (Neon), from Pablo Berger, won best independent feature, and “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko” (ElectroLeague) took best short. The prestige short got a boost in its race for the Oscar. It’s directed by Pixar alum Dave Mullins and executive produced by Sean Ono Lennon, in partnership with Peter Jackson and his Wētā FX Limited animation team.
Hayao Miyazaki’s summary film, “The Boy and the Heron“ (Studio Ghibli-GKids), won two Annies for Takeshi Honda’s character animation and Miyazaki’s storyboarding. It has won most of the critics’ awards and is “Spider-Verse’s” closest Oscar competitor.
“Nimona,” the underdog Oscar nominee from Annapurna Animation/Netflix, adapted from ND Stevenson’s best-selling LGBTQ graphic novel, was the surprise leader with nine Annie nominations. It took home awards for Chloë Grace Moretz’s voice acting as Nimona and writing (Robert L. Baird, Lloyd Taylor).
The VFX Oscar nominee, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” won for Framestore’s live-action character animation.
Netflix’s “Blue Eye Samurai” dominated the TV awards with six Annies (TV mature, FX, character animation, production design, writing, editorial).
Here are the jury awards: The Winsor McCay Award went to legendary animator and director Charlotte “Lotte” Reiniger (posthumously); prolific Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi; and National Film Board animator and producer Marcy Page.
The June Foray Award was presented to BRIC Foundation co-founders Alison Mann and Nicole Hendrix. The Ub lwerks Award for technical advancement was awarded posthumously to John Oxberry (for his legendary Oxberry animation stand for creating and shooting cell animation). The Special Achievement Award was presented to the artists of Walt Disney Animation.
Here is a partial list of the Annie winners (noted in bold):
Best Feature
“Nimona”
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse“
“Suzume”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
“The Boy and the Heron”
Best Feature – Independent
“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia”
“Four Souls of Coyote”
“Robot Dreams”
“The Inventor”
“White Plastic Sky”
Best Short Subject
“Carne de Dios”
“Daffy in Wackyland”
“Humo”
“Pina”
“War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”
Best FX – Feature
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget”
“Elemental”
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
“Suzume”
“The Peasants”
Best Character Animation – Feature
“Elemental”
“Nimona”
“Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”
“Suzume”
“The Boy and the Heron” (Studio Ghibli/Distributed by GKids, Takeshi Honda)
Best Character Design – Feature
“Elemental”
Pixar Animation Studios / Maria Yi
“Merry Little Batman”
Amazon MGM Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment / Nikolas Ilic
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix Aidan Sugano
“Robot Dreams”
Arcadia Motion Pictures / Daniel Fernandez Casas
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Sony Pictures Animation /Jesús Alonso Iglesias
Best Direction – Feature
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix / Nick Bruno, Troy Quane
“Robot Dreams”
Arcadia Motion Pictures /Pablo Berger, Benoît Feroumont
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Sony Pictures Animation / Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies / Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears
“The Boy and the Heron”
Studio Ghibli / Distributed by GKIDS / Hayao Miyazaki
Best Music – Feature
“Elemental”
Pixar Animation Studios / Thomas Newman, Ari “LAUV” Leff
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Sony Pictures Animation / Daniel Pemberton, Metro Boomin
“Suzume”
Crunchyroll/Sony/ Kazuma Jinnouchi, RADWIMPS
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies / Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
“The Boy and the Heron”
Studio Ghibli / Distributed by GKIDS / Joe Hisaishi
Best Production Design – Feature
“Elemental”
Pixar Animation Studios / Don Shank, Maria Yi, Dan Holland, Jennifer Chang, Laura Meyer
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix / Aidan Sugano, Jeff Turley
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Sony Pictures Animation / Patrick O’Keefe, Dean Gordon
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies / Yashar Kassai, Arthur, Tiffany Lam
“The Boy and the Heron”
Studio Ghibli / Distributed by GKIDS / Yoji Takeshige
Best Storyboarding – Feature
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget”
Netflix Presents An Aardman Production / Richard Phelan
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix / Esteban Bravo
“Robot Dreams”
Arcadia Motion Pictures / Maca Gil
“Suzume”
Crunchyroll/Sony / Makoto Shinkai
“The Boy and the Heron”
Studio Ghibli / Distributed by GKIDS / Hayao Miyazaki
Best Voice Acting – Feature
“Merry Little Batman”
Amazon MGM Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment / David Hornsby (Character: Joker)
“Migration”
Illumination / Tresi Gazal (Character: Gwen)
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix / Chloë Grace Moretz (Character: Nimona)
“Suzume”
Crunchyroll/Sony / Hokuto Matsumura (Character: Souta Munakata)
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
Illumination / Jack Black (Character: Bowser)
Best Writing – Feature
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix / Robert L. Baird, Lloyd Taylor
“Robot Dreams”
Arcadia Motion Pictures / Pablo Berger
“Suzume”
Crunchyroll/Sony / Makoto Shinkai
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies / Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit
“The Boy and the Heron”
Studio Ghibli / Distributed by GKIDS / Hayao Miyazaki
Best Editorial – Feature
“Elemental”
Pixar Animation Studios / Stephen Schaffer, Amera Rizk, Gregory Snyder, Jen Jew, Kevin Rose-Williams
“Leo”
Happy Madison for Netflix / Patrick Voetberg, Joseph Titone, Darrian M. James, Danny Miller, Brian Robinson
“Nimona”
Annapurna Animation for Netflix / Randy Trager, Erin Crackel, Stephen Schwartz, Ashley Calle
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Sony Pictures Animation / Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Editorial Team
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies /Greg Levitan, Illya Quinteros, David Croomes, Myra Owyang
