“Nimona,” the underdog Oscar contender from Annapurna Animation/Netflix, was the surprise leader for ASIFA-Hollywood’s 51st Annie Awards with nine nominations. Meanwhile, the leading Oscar frontrunners, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and Studio Ghibli/GKids’ “The Boy and the Heron” each scored seven nominations. The awards ceremony will be held February 17 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
They will compete for best feature honors with Crunchyroll/Sony’s “Suzume,” the latest 2D fantasy/adventure from anime master Makoto Shinkai, which also collected seven nominations, and Nickelodeon/Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which grabbed six noms.
Pixar’s “Elemental” also earned six nominations (FX, character animation, character design, Thomas Newman and Ari “LAUV” Leff’s music, production design, and editorial), while Neon’s “Robot Dreams,” an indie Oscar hopeful from Spain/France, earned five nominations (best indie feature, character design, Pablo Berger’s direction, storyboarding, and writing).
The other best indie feature contenders are GKids’ “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,” “Four Souls of Coyote” (Cinemon Entertainment), “The Inventor” (Curiosity Studios), and “White Plastic Sky” (SALTO Films & Artichoke).
Disney’s musical fantasy, “Wish,” was shut out, despite the prestige surrounding the wishing star origin story made in honor of the studio’s 100th anniversary. Getting blanked represents an Annie first for Disney.
However, “Nimona,” about the shapeshifting teen, adapted from ND Stevenson’s best-selling LGBTQ graphic novel, could benefit from an Oscar boost, along with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Suzume.”
The other nominations for “Nimona” were character animation, character design, direction (Nick Bruno, Troy Quane), production design, storyboarding, voice acting, writing, and editorial.
“Across the Spider-Verse,” which is the Oscar favorite from producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, was also nominated for FX, character design, direction (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson), music (Daniel Pemberton, Metro Boomin), production design, and editorial.
“The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki’s most personal film and the Golden Globe winner for Best Animated Feature, was additionally nominated for character animation, Miyazaki’s direction, music (Joe Hisaishi), production design, storyboarding, and writing.
“Suzume” was also nominated for FX, character animation, music (Kazuma Jinnouchi, RADWIMPS), storyboarding, voice acting, and writing.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” also earned nominations for direction (Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears), music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross), production design, writing, and editorial.
Best short nominees include the Oscar-shortlisted “War Is Over: Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (ElectroLeague) and “Humo” (Outik Animation, 3rd Street Video, Mindsoup Entertainment, IMCINE), along with “Carne de Dios” (Ojo Raro & Fedora Productions), “Daffy in Wackyland” (Warner Bros. Animation), and “Pina” (Punchline Cinema/Next Five Days).
TV nominations in the mature category include “Big Mouth” (Netflix), “Blue Eye Samurai” (Netflix), “Bob’s Burgers” (20th Century Television Animation), “Scavengers Reign” (Max), and “Tomato Kitchen” (Bilibili / Studio Reflection); in limited series, the nominees include “Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire” (Triggerfish Animation Studio & Blinkink), “Only You: An Animated Shorts Collection” (Afterman production in association with Max/Warner Bros. Discovery), and “Pokémon: Path to the Peak” (The Pokémon Company International).
In addition, there are the following juried awards: The Winsor McCay Award will go to legendary animator and director Charlotte “Lotte” Reiniger (posthumously); prolific Studio Ghibli composer Hisaishi; and National Film Board animator and producer Marcy Page.
The June Foray Award will be presented to BRIC Foundation co-founders Alison Mann and Nicole Hendrix. The Ub lwerks Award for technical advancement will go toto John Oxberry (posthumously). The Special Achievement Award will be presented to the artists of Walt Disney Animation.
Here is a partial list of the Annie nominations:
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”
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
