Animated Thoughts: The 53rd Annual Annie Awards

My yearly thoughts on the Annie Awards...

• Only real issue I have with these student films is finding ways to watch them! There's so much creativity and skill in these films, would really like to have a showcase where we can see all the nominees.
• Best Short Subject... Gah! Other than the Girl who Cried Pearls, I haven't see any of these shorts. We need a shorts program that shows the Annie Award student nominee and professional nominee films, much like Shorts International does with the Academy Award nominated short films!
• Nice to see Aaron win the Annie for 'Snowbear'--and his Winsor McCay award from last year. His online classes have been a great source of instruction over the years.
• Well, at least we got though eleven minutes of the show without politics.
• Love, Death + Robots won Production Design in an Animated Television/Media Production, congrats to Blur Studios and Gigi Cavenago.
• Production Design in an Animated Feature goes to Sony for KPop Demon Hunters. Wonder how many they're going to win tonight?
• Y'know, I swear I've seen "Trek" somewhere before, but I can't place it. Hrm. Off to YouTube! Yup, I've seen this before. No idea where though... Ottawa maybe?
• Bobby Chiu! Glad to see him get an award. Have loved his Schoolism.com workshops.
• Music in an Animated Feature goes to KPop Demon Hunters. Called it. Though figured Zootopia 2 would give them a run for their money.
• Best Character Design TV/Media goes to Love, Death + Robots for '400 Boys'. Awesome! Though this category was really tough to predict. Some really top shelf designs there.
• Best Character Design for an Animated Feature. That was another tough one to predict. Though once I saw KPop and Spongebob on the lineup, figured it be either one of those two. Turns out I was right again. Think we're going to see a sweep of the Annies with KPop Demon Hunters. Wonder if they'll match Arcane's record of awards? Hrm Arcane was nominated for nine, how many was KPop  Demon Hunters nominated for? Ten?
• Heh. Good one Aubry! Wah-com. Now do GIF! ;)
• We love you Brock Sampson!
• Character Animation in a video game... wow! Just wow! The skill that is on the screen. Not sure how the judges could pick the winner in this category.
• Character Animation in TV/Media, not gonna lie, was kinda hoping for Asterix & Obelix...
• Best Character Animation - Feature: KPop Demon Hunters...? Yup. Though this was another tough one to call: Zootopia, Bad Guys, Little Amelie... 
• I make a mental note to check out Spice Frontier and WONDLA...
• Best Animated Effects - Feature... KPop Demon Hunters. Going to have to check out In Your Dreams though.
• Best Editorial - TV/Media... sorry, gotta give this to Invincible or Splinter Cell.
• Best Editorial - Feature... we know it's going to be 'KPop', but wouldn't mind seeing Little Amelie or Olivia & las Nubes win this one.
• Happy to see Michaël Dudok de Wit win the Winsor McCay Award, his film The Monk and the Fish is the last film I show in my Animation History class every year.
• Best Voice Acting - Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters. Closing in on Arcane...
• Not going to lie here, I liked 'KPop', but I was really hoping that Mamoru Hosoda would win the Writing in an Animated Feature Annie for Scarlet.
• Awesome! Another win for Love, Death + Robots! Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Media Production.
• Directing in an Animated Feature Production... was still rooting for Mamoru Hosoda.
• Best Animated Independent Feature goes to Arco. Hrm. Might be worth a look...
• And KPop Demon Hunters sweeps every category it was nominated in ending up with a total of ten Annies.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners, the accolades are well deserved. And thank you for ASIFA Hollywood for bringing us the Annie Awards.

Animated Thoughts: The 50th Annual Annie Awards

 

Well, tonight was the 50th anniversary of ASIFA Hollywood's Annie Awards and also my ramblings on the always entertaining awards ceremony.

• Opening the 50th with Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants.
• Hrm, don't recall seeing Ice Merchants. Looks to be worth a look. Fortunately, it's on the New Yorker's YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/mhj74ZjfaQ8).
• Best Special Production: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. I just love the visual style of this film. Can't wait to watch it.
• June Foray Award goes to animation historian Mindy Johnson and is well deserved!
• I'm reminded of the fact that I need to watch Phil Tippett's Mad God.
• Best Character Design in TV/Media goes to Blur Studio's Alberto Mieglo for the Jibaro episode of Love Death + Robots! What an awesome win for an incredible episode of animated film.
• Best Character Animation in TV/Media goes to Tim Watts for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse.
• Another great win for Love, Death + Robots: Animated Effects in an Animated TV/Media Production for the Bad Traveling episode.
• Editing in an Animated TV/Media Production, another win for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. This film is having a really good night!
• Was very touching to see Evelyn Lambart posthumously receive the Winsor McCay award. I really loved seeing the montage of films, photos, and interviews featuring Evelyn. It's always a treat to see her work shown to a larger audience.
• Was even more touching to see how ASIFA Hollywood brought out Lauren Faust to present the Winsor McCay award to her husband Craig McCracken.
• Hrm. So they bring in Bob Iger to present Pete Docter's Winsor McCay award. And when they do the montage for Pete Docter's career, they blank out the video that's being streamed to online audiences "Due to copyright and clearance issues..." Ooookay...
• Another win for Love, Death + Robots: Andrew Kevin Walker won Best Writing/ TV/Media for the Bad Traveling episode.
• They produced a stop-mo segment for when the Tiny Chef Show won Best Animated TV Production for Preschool Children--with the Tiny Chef presenting the congratulatory speech. That was pretty clever.
• Really like how they've added the 'Best Animated TV/Media Production, Limited Series' category. That was a really classy decision--to shine light on some shows that would otherwise be overlooked.
• Not sure if Guillermo del Toro ad-libbed some of his lines but he sure was funny.
• Love, Death + Robots is having a great night as Emily Dean won the award for Storyboarding in an Animated Televison/Media Production for the Very Pulse of the Machine episode.
• I make a mental note to track down exception / エクセプション and watch the Misprint episode.
• Another win for the Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, this time Directing in an Animated television/Media Production. Now I really can't wait to watch this film.
• I bump My Father's Dragon up on the list of features I want to watch.
• A very gracious and humbling yet energetic speech from Guillermo del Toro when he won the Annie for Directing in an Animated Feature Production for Pinocchio.
• Am a little embarrassed that I haven't seen any of the entries in the Best Indie Feature category.
• And Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio wins the Best Animated Feature. I quickly log on Netflix to add it to my queue.

Congratulations to all the winners and the nominees.

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Animated Events: the 50th Annual Annie Awards

Well, the nominees for the 50th annual Annie Awards have been announced by ASIFA Hollywood. The following are the nominees for the three main categories that I'm most interested in:

Best Feature

• Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
• The Sea Beast
• Turning Red
• Wendell & Wild

Best Indie Feature

• Charlotte
• Inu-Oh
• Little Nicholas, Happy As Can Be
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
• My Father's Dragon

Best Short Subject

• Amok
• Black Slide
• Ice Merchants
• Love, Dad
• The Flying Sailor

Sadly, due to the lingering travel restrictions preventing me from attending animation festivals, this is the first time in recent memory that I haven't seen any of the nominees. On the bright side, I do have Netflix, so a private screening of Wendell & Wild and My Father's Dragon is in my future.

The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 7 p.m. PST.

Congratulations to all the nominees. I look forward to seeing who wins in February. You can see a full list of the nominees and watch the ceremony streamed online at: https://annieawards.org.

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Animated Events: the 49th Annual Annie Awards

www.annieawards.org

This year, the 49th Annual Annie Awards will be held on Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 10 p.m. EST. 

 

Hosted by ASIFA Hollywood, the Annies celebrate the yearly achievements of the animation and VFX industry. 

 

My personal favorites are the best animated feature categories, for many reasons but not the least of which is how they bring up fond memories of driving to Ontario the weekend before Thanksgiving to attend the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema--the only animation festival in the world that was dedicated to showing animated feature films and the only place that I could see a lot of the indie features that would get nominated every year.

In the animated feature categories, the nominees are as follows.

Best Feature:

• Encanto
• Luca
• Raya and the Last Dragon
• Sing 2
• The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Best Indie Feature:

• Belle
• Flee
• Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko
• Pompo the Cinephil
• The Summit of the Gods

I used to make it a point to watch all the feature film nominees -- the Ottawa Festival and WFAC made it real easy -- however this year, other than 'Mitchells' none of the films in the Best Feature category interest me, so I'll probably watch 'Mitchells' on Netflix before the ceremony. Belle is playing here in Lansing over the next two weeks and I'm purchasing my ticket today. Not sure if I want to see it in IMAX format, but I do plan to watch the subtitled version so I can see the film in as close to the director's original intention as possible.

 

Had the opportunity to watch The Summit of the Gods this past weekend. It was good production with some really solid storytelling and beautiful visuals. I'd recommend it to anyone but be warned that it's a more mature story. Don't watch it expecting a Disney/Pixar musical.

So far though, there aren't any opportunities to see any of the other indie features around Michigan, but as GKIDS is distributing 'Lady Nikuko' and 'Pompo', I have high hopes that they'll be shown around here soon.

 

And I have to give a special shout out to three entries in other categories. These three animated series were some of the best I've seen in years and well deserving of their nominations. Arcane is in my list of the top five best animated series I've ever seen.

Arcane (Riot Games/Fortishe Productions/Netflix) was nominated in the following nine categories:

• Best TV/Media - General Audience - Episode: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down
• Best FX - TV/Media - Episode: Oil and Water
• Best Character Animation - TV/Media - Episode: The Monster You Created
• Best Character Design - TV/Media - Episode: Some Mysteries Better Left Unsolved
• Best Direction - TV/Media - Episode: The Monster You Created
• Best Production Design - TV/Media - Episode: Happy Progress Day!
• Best Storyboarding - TV/Media - Episode: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down
• Best Voice Acting - TV/Media - Episode: When These Walls Come Tumbling Down
• Best Writing - TV/Media - Episode: The Monster You Created

Invincible (Amazon Studios) was nominated for 'Best Storyboarding - TV/Media' for the episode "Where I Really Come From"

 

And Love, Death + Robots (Blur Studio/Netflix) was nominated in the following five categories:

• Best TV/Media - General Audience - Episode: Ice 
• Best Character Animation - TV/Media - Episode: All Through the House
• Best Production Design - TV/Media - Episode: Ice
• Best Storyboarding - TV/Media - Episode: Pop Squad
• Best Editorial - TV/Media - Episode: Pop Squad

Congratulations to all the nominees. I look forward to seeing who wins in February. You can see a full list of the nominees and watch the ceremony streamed online at: https://annieawards.org.

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Animated Events: The 48th Annual Annie Awards

 

Nominations for the 48th annual Annie awards are live on their website and can be viewed at: https://annieawards.org/nominations

In the Best Feature category, Pixar appears to be starting strong with two entries: Onward and Soul. DreamWorks is matching them with two entries as well: The Croods: A New Age and Trolls World Tour. Additionally, Netflix/BRON Animation/Creative Wealth Media is in the running with their feature The Willoughbys.

Since I haven't seen any of the corporate features in the above list, of a little more interest to me is the Best Indie Feature Category with Studiocanal/Aardman Animation's A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Maybe Movies/Norlum's Calamity Jane, Rock'n Roll Mountain/Tip Top's On-Gaku: Our Sound, Science SARU's Ride Your Wave, and finally Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions/GKIDS film Wolfwalkers.

So far, I've seen Ride Your Wave and Wolfwalkers. Personally, I hope to see Farmageddon, Onward, Soul, and the Croods before the Annies, but that is about all the spare time I think I'll have in order to get caught up with feature-length films.

The Annies will be broadcast online on Friday, April 16th, 2021 starting at 7 p.m. and the links to view the ceremony are usually posted on their website: https://annieawards.org. As always, I'll be posting my thoughts about the ceremony in the weeks thereafter.

Best wishes and congratulations to all the nominees.

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Animated Thoughts: New year, New thoughts

After a disappointing and uncertain 2020, I started the year out strong: was brought back to teach Animation History at Central Michigan University and they're looking to bring me back in the Fall to teach again. The two-hour commute is a bit grating, but it's only once per week and I really enjoy the course material. That and I am having fun bonding with the students over our mutual love of animation. If you have the time, I highly recommend Maureen Furniss's book: A New History of Animation.

Conventions are still pretty much on hiatus, though even more seem to be going online this year. Gen Con is doing surveys to gauge public opinion, but a lot of us think that it's likely that Gen Con 2021 will be virtual like last year. It's nice that a lot of these con organizers are doing "something" but online cons are still not the same. I just don't feel the same sense of community from a virtual convention. But, I sheepishly must admit, it is nice to have more money to spend on games and such since you're not paying for travel and hotels.

It looks like ASIFA Hollywood has moved the date for the 2021 Annie Awards. It's now being held on Friday, April 16th and they've gone completely virtual this year. As I normally watch it online--streamed through their website--there's really no change for me this year. I'm just happy to watch the show any way that I can.

And TAIS workshops and courses are in full swing and scheduled out to April. I'm a little crestfallen that I missed out on the Animated Documentary workshop. I was just too busy getting ready for teaching at CMU. Hopefully I'll be able to carve out a little time this year to take a TAIS workshop or course (or two) and make that investment in my skillset and knowledgebase. Gotta keep moving forward no matter what the future looks like.

As the fortune cookie once told me: "May you live in interesting times."

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Animated Thoughts: The 47th Annie Awards

Well, the 47th Annie Awards ceremony has come and gone. Time for the yearly "random thoughts" I had during the broadcast:

• Opened by honoring Richard Williams. Nice. Very touching words from his daughters and colleague.
• I immediately put Shadowmachine's Kaiju Confidential on my list of animations to track down and watch.
• "Saving the polar bears" in... Antarctica... Um... whut?
• Please God, let Fox and the Pigeon win Best Student Film!
• YES!!!!! Congrats to Michelle Chua for such a beautiful film. One of my favorites from Ottawa the other year.
• Best Short Subject... Hrm. Haven't seen 'Uncle Thomas' yet. Was hoping that Acid Rain would win -- though I reserve the right to change my opinion once I see the others in that category.
• Hi Jerry! :)
• Oh please, Love, Death, and Robots (The Witness) is nominated for Best Production Design - TV/Media!!! Let an adult-themed animation win...
• Heh, the Clutch Cargo gag was pretty clever. Loved the mini history lesson.
• Love Death And Robots (Sonnie's Edge) wins again! This time in the category of Music TV Media. A great night for adult animation!
• Loved Charles Solomon's part on early CG animation honoring Dr. James Blinn with the Ub Iwerks award. Dr. Blinn sounded like a fascinating man. Wonder if there's a Ted talk or podcast out there with him.
• Oh please, let The Secret War win Best FX TV/Media... that would be just awesome!
• And another win for Love Death and Robots. This has got to be my favorite Annie Award ceremony ever!
• And the award for Editorial TV/Media goes to... Love Death and Robots (Alternate Histories)!
• Henry Selick wins the Winsor McCay award, and is well deserved. Would love to hang out with him at the OIAF picnic and listen to him tell stories about his career.
• Satoshi Kon posthumously awarded the Winsor McCay award. Very well deserved. A life and a career that ended far too soon.
• Y'know, as much as I like Patrick Warburton (we love you Brock Sampson), I'm really enjoying this new format where there are fewer monologues and they 'appear' to have given more time to the award recipients' speeches.
• Hrm... The Hospital by Amazon Studios... looks interesting. Time to take advantage of that Amazon Prime subscription.
• Love, Death & Robots missed out on the Best Storyboarding for T.V./Media award. Would have loved a full sweep but happy that they won at least four of the five categories they were nominated in.
• Kind of wished I'd watched I Lost My Body at Ottawa... honestly glad it won the award. Going to have to re-up my Netflix subscription and track it down.
• Lotta love for Netflix this year!

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners. See you next year! :)

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Animated Events: 47th Annie Awards

On Saturday, January 25th at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Frozen 2 - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - DreamWorks Animation
• Klaus - Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
• Missing Link - LAIKA, LLC
• Toy Story 4 - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles - Sygnatia, Glow, Submarine, Hampa Animation Studio
• I Lost My Body - Xilam for Netflix
• Okko's Inn - Madhouse
• Promare - TRIGGER, XFLAG
• Weathering With You - Toho Co., LTD. / STORY Inc. / CoMix Wave Films

Best Animated Short Subject

• Acid Rain - Animoon
• DONT KNOW WHAT - Thomas Renoldner
• Je sors acheter des cigarettes - Miyu Productions
• Purpleboy - Bando à Parte, Rainbox Productions, Ambiances… asbl, Luna Blue Film
• Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days - Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs

In addition to the Production and Individual Achievement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 47th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Thoughts: The 46th Annie Awards

Well, the 46th Annie Awards ceremony has come and gone. Some random thoughts I had during the ceremony:

• "The Ventura Brothers"... wut!?
• I put Mind Palace by the Filmakademie Badem-Württemberg GmbH on my list of films to track down.
• Weekends won the Best Animated Short Subject award, and deservedly so.
• Always glad to see Gobelins, L'École de L'Image get some recognition.
• Even more glad to see Age of Sail get some recognition. Need to take a closer look at Google Spotlight Stories.
• Wow! Am impressed by what films they're preserving -- especially those Terrytoons films. Wish we could get a screening of those out here for our ASIFA chapter!
• Am pleasantly surprised to see how much mileage studios are getting out of older properties like Rocky & Bullwinkle, Mickey Mouse, and Tom & Jerry.
• "Hi Brooke!" *waves back* :)
• The Blender demo reel was pretty impressive!
• Hrm... I like those ASIFA Hollywood lapel pins...
• Am baffled by how many awards Spider-man is getting. The animation in the trailers looks so choppy it's really distracting. Welp. That tears it. Gonna have to go see the movie for myself.
• Sometimes the jokes go on a little too long. Remember what Bill Plympton taught us: Keep it short, keep it funny!
• Every time they bring up Bill and Sue Kroyer, I have visions of sitting in the Odeon theater and seeing Technological Threat for the first time.
• Huh. So that's what Pinky and the Brain look like.
• Next year, need to download the program before the ceremony.
• "the right voice can make or break a cartoon..." Wow. That one statement needs to be hammered into the consciousness of every director (he said after watching one too many bad English dubs).
• "We love you Brock Sampson!"
• All the films in the Best Independent Feature category look so amazing! Fortunately, I've seen Ce Magnifique Gâteau and will see MFKZ, Ruben Brandt, Collector, and Tito and the Birds at TAAFI this month.
• And Japanese animation gets some well deserved recognition. I can't wait to see Mirai. Once it's released on DVD, I must bump it up on my list of features to watch.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

Animated Events: 46th Annie Awards

 

On Saturday, February 2nd at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Early Man - Aardman Animations
• Incredibles 2 - Pixar Animation Studios
• Isle Of Dogs - Fox Searchlight Pictures / Indian Paintbrush / American Empirical Pictures
• Ralph Breaks The Internet - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Sony Pictures Animation

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• Ce Magnifique Gâteau! - Beast Animation, Vivement Lundi !, Pedri Animation
• MFKZ - Ankama / Studio 4ºC
• Mirai - Studio Chizu
• Ruben Brandt, Collector - Ruben Brandt LLC
• Tito and the Birds - Bits Productions, Split Studio

Best Animated Short Subject

• Grandpa Walrus - Caïmans Productions
• Lost & Found - Wabi Sabi Studios
• SOLAR WALK - Nørlum
• Untravel - Production: Film House Baš Čelik, Serbia Co-production: BFilm, Bratislava / Your Dreams Factory, Bratislava
• Weekends - past lives productions

In addition to the Production and Individual Achievement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 46th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Thoughts: the Annie Awards

Well, the 45th Annie Awards ceremony has come and gone was tonight. Some random thoughts I had during the ceremony:

• Loved the vintage drive-in theater intermission animations that they played while waiting for the ceremony to start. A lot of them had this nice UPA feeling to them.
• Should prepare a short 'thank you' script ahead of time, folks. Glenn and Kobe really handled it well though.
• Very happy to see Samurai Jack getting some love!
• Very touching video showcasing memories of June Foray.
• They found a UPA print that was never released? Wow!! When do we get to see it?
• Putting the student films Cradle, Elsewhere, and Once a hero on my list of films to track down.
• Wished that Negative Space had won the Best Animated Short Subject. :/
• Very, very happy to see Samurai Jack getting some love at the Annies.
• Glad to see Studio MDHR Entertainment get recognized with a special achievement award for their use of traditional 2d animation in their game  Cuphead.
• Lots of lovely animation work being produced using TV Paint.
• Studio MDHR got the Character Animation in a Video Game award for Cuphead and it was very well deserved.
• I can't wait to see the Big Bad Fox & Other Tales. I also can't help but think that if the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema was still around, I would've seen it already.
• Very, very, VERY happy to see Samurai Jack getting some love! It's long overdue.
• Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis win the Winsor McCay Award, another well deserved award.
• Wow!!! Rick and Morty won for Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production for that awesome Ricklantis episode. Congrats to Ryan Ridley and Dan Guterman.
• Y'know, every time I see anything from We Bare Bears, it makes me wish I had Cartoon Network on my basic cable package.
• "PICKLE-RICK!!!!"
• Did they just give away the winner of the Best Animated Feature - Independent before showing the clips?
• Y'know, I'm glad to see Nory Twomy get some well-deserved recognition for directing the Breadwinner (the first solo-woman director to win an Annie for Best Animated Feature), but I was still pulling for Loving Vincent. ;)

Congrats to all the winners and nominees.

Animated Events: 45th Annie Awards

This Saturday, February 3rd at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie - DreamWorks Animation
• Cars 3 - Pixar Animation Studios
• Coco - Pixar Animation Studios
• Despicable Me 3 - Illumination
• The Boss Baby - DreamWorks Animation

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• In This Corner Of The World - Taro Maki, GENCO, Inc. and Masao Maruyama, MAPPA Co., Ltd
• Loving Vincent - BreakThru Films, Production Company Trademark Films, Co-Production Company     
• Napping Princess - Nippon TV 
• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales - Folivari / Panique! / Studiocanal
• The Breadwinner - Cartoon Saloon / Aircraft Pictures / Melusine Productions

Best Animated Short Subject

• Dear Basketball - Glen Keane Productions, Kobe Studios, Believe Entertainment Group
• Hedgehog's Home - National Film Board of Canada, Bonobostudio
• Negative Space -  IKKI Films / Manuel Cam Studio
• Scavengers -  Titmouse, Inc. // Adult Swim
• Son Of Jaguar - Google Spotlight Stories, Reel FX

In addition to the Production and Individual Achievement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 45th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Thoughts: the Annie Awards

Some random thoughts from the 44th Annie Awards:

• The sloth joke from Zootopia was played out after the first time we saw it in the Zootopia trailer. In the words of another Disney character: Let. It. Go.
  
  
• Really happy to see Kubo and the Two Strings get some recognition. Wish it had been in the box office, but glad to see it happen nonetheless. It's well deserved.
  
  
• The portrait of class: the director of Life Animated called up the subject of his documentary and three of the animators on the stage to share in the award.
  
  
• Good to see Bill and Sue Kroyer get an award for all their hard work and contributions to the field of animation. Technological Threat remains one of my favorite shorts of all time.
  
  
• Made a mental note to track down the Abyss, a student film by China's Liying Huang and Wu Zheng and Deer Flower by Studio ZAZAC.
  
  
• Funniest moment of the evening: the envelope mishap during the presentation of the Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in an Animated Production award.
  
  
• The mirror dimension sequence for Dr. Strange won the award for Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action Production. Very cool! Course, it reminds me that I'm gonna need to buy a bigger television when that DVD is released...
  
  
• Zootopia is doing well during the awards ceremony. And congrats to them, it's deserved, but I'm still hoping that Kubo and the Two Strings gets some more love before the night is over.
  
  
• I'm not a sports fan, but the Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant bit was pretty amusing.
  
  
• And Laika animator Jan Maas wins the award for Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Feature Production for his work on Kubo and the Two Strings! :)
  
  
• Aaaannd, Kubo snags another award, this time for Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production!
  
  
• Am not getting the 'dog' joke that keeps popping up.
  
  
• Was worth staying up just to see Caroline Leaf and Mamoru Oshii get the Winsor McCay Award for their career contributions to the art of animation. Lovely speech by Ms. Leaf--glad to see the NFB get a shout-out and well deserved praise. What a great surprise to see that Mamoru Oshii made the trip to California to receive his award.
  
  
• James Hong is turning 88 years old this month... wow. He still looks like he's in his fifties! And still has that great sense of humor. :)
  
  
• Hm. Nothing puts a damper on the festivities like partisan politics.
  
  
• The Adventure Time "Bad Jubies" episode wins an Annie for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children. Congratulations to Kirsten Lepore! Wish she'd won 'Best Director for an Animated TV/Broadcast Production', but nice to see her get some recognition. :)
  
  
• The Red Turtle wins the Best Animated Feature - Independent. I can't wait to see this film, though will have to wait until the end of the month to see it at the Main Art Theater in Royal Oak. Time to schedule in a side-trip to the DIA.
  
  

Animated Events: the 44th Annie Awards

This Saturday, February 4th at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST), ASIFA Hollywood will be streaming the annual Annie Awards, a celebration of the best our industry has to offer.

Both the Production and Individual Achievement categories are listed on the Nominees page, however some highlights are below:

Best Animated Feature

• Finding Dory - Pixar Animation Studios
• Kubo and the Two Strings - LAIKA
• Kung Fu Panda 3 - DreamWorks Animation
• Moana - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Zootopia - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Best Animated Feature - Independent

• Long Way North - Produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Maybe Movies, Norlum Studios, France 3 Cinéma and 2 Minutes
• Miss Hokusai - Production I.G
• My Life As A Zucchini - Rita Productions, Blue Spirit Productions, Gebeka Films, KNM
• The Red Turtle - Studio Ghibli – Wild Bunch – Why Not Productions
• Your Name. - CoMix Wave Films

Best Animated Short Subject

• Blind Vaysha - National Film Board of Canada
• Deer Flower - Studio ZAZAC
• Path Title Sequence - Acme Filmworks
• Pearl - Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures
• Piper - Pixar Animation Studios

Best Student Film

• Citipati - Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
• FISHWITCH - Adrienne Dowling
• The Abyss - Liying Huang
• The Wrong End of the Stick - Terri Matthews
• Twiddly Things - Adara Todd

In addition to the Production and Individual Acheivement awards, they'll also be presenting the Juried Awards for the following:

• the Winsor McCay Award - 'for their career contributions to the art of animation',
• the Ub Iwerks Award - 'for technical advancement in the art of animation',
• the Special Achievement Award,
• the June Foray Award - 'for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation', and
• the Certificate of Merit.

You can watch the 44th Annie Awards ceremony live right 'here' on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

43rd Annie Awards Wrap-up

Well, the 43rd Annie Awards ceremony was tonight. Some random thoughts I had during the ceremony:

• Very sad to see "Kahlil Gibran's the Prophet" get passed over, but at least it got some nominations. 


• Don Hertzfeldt got some well deserved recognition... and he wasn't there to accept the award.


• Isao Takahata wins the Winsor McCay award. Doesn't make it to the ceremony but sends a really classy acceptance speech that devotes serious time acknowledging how animation is a collaborative effort and thanking those who work with him on his films.


• Phil Roman also wins the Winsor McCay award. I really hope ASIFA Hollywood recorded his speech for the archives. A lot of great history there.


• Was nice to see the NFB shorts "If I was God..." by Cordell Barker and Claude Cloutier's "Carface" get nominated.


• Huh. So that's what the voice of Spongebob looks like...


• Felt that "Shaun the Sheep" and "Boy & the World" should have done far, far better than they did.


• "Bob's Burgers" got some serious love tonight.


• Was nice to see some anime features represented, but there needed to be more...


• ASIFA Hollywood added a 'Best Animated Feature ~Independent~' category. Glad to see some of these features get some real recognition--it is long overdue. Hope this doesn't prevent future "independent" features from going toe-to-toe for the 'Best Animated Feature' category. Have seen so many animated features in the past few years that are just as good, if not better, than those that are being produced by the big studios.


• I wonder why people feel the need to add the word 'fuck' into their speeches?

ASIFA Hollywood President Jerry Beck's website "Animation Scoop" has a very nice summary of the awards ceremony along with the complete list of winners. You can view it here.

Congratulations to all the award nominees and winners.

Animated Events: The 43rd annual Annie Awards

It's time to get your animation geek on and honor all the hard work that our colleagues have put into our craft at the Annie Awards.

The forty-third annual Annie Awards will be streamed online this Saturday, February 6th, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. The following is the link to the stream http://annieawards.org/watch-it-live/.

And while you're waiting, you can read all the nominees here: http://annieawards.org/nominees/.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Animated Events: The 39th Annual Annie Awards

It's going to be an exciting weekend! This Saturday, February 1st, at 7 p.m. PST, the Annie Awards will be streamed live over the internet.

For those who don't know, the Annie Awards is the 'Oscars' of the animation industry with awards given out for various achievements in animation, visual effects, and video games.

This year's host will be Patrick "Brock Sampson" Warburton and the ceremony will honor the achievements of such animation legends as Katsuhiro Otomo and Phil Tippett.

The awards ceremony will be streamed via Jerry Beck's Animation Scoop website at www.animationscoop.com. Right now, the only link to the ceremony is posted on the front page of the Annie Awards website at www.annieawards.org. The link goes to a hidden page on Animation Scoop which I assume will go live shortly before the ceremony starts.

You can read more about the Annie Awards on the ASIFA Hollywood website in addition to this article on Animation Scoop.

Also, the Annie Awards trailer with highlights from last year's event is below.


Annie Awards Trailer 720p h264 from ASIFA Hollywood on Vimeo.

Animated Thoughts: The Annie Awards

Well, the nominations have been announced for the 40th annual Annie Awards. Hosted by ASIFA Hollywood.

While there are many other categories (which can be viewed on Jerry Beck's Cartoon Brew website), these are the entries for three main categories that I follow:

Best Animated Feature
Brave — Disney
Frankenweenie – Disney
Hotel Transylvania — Sony Animation
ParaNorman — Laika
The Pirates: Band of Misfits — Aardman Animation/Sony Animation
The Rabbi’s Cat — Autochenille Production/GKids
Rise of The Guardians — DreamWorks Animation
Wreck-It Ralph — Disney


Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 – Warner Bros. Animation
Before Orel – Trust – Starburns Industries, Inc.
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem – Illumination Entertainment
Disney Tron: Uprising – Beck’s Beginning – Disney TV Animation
Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury – DreamWorks Animation
Justice League: Doom – Warner Bros. Animation


Best Animated Short Subject
Brad and Gary (Illumination/Universal)
Bydlo (NFB)
Eyes On The Stars (StoryCorps)
Goodnight Mr Foot (Sony Animation)
Kali The Little Vampire (NFB)
Paperman (Disney)
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare (20th Century-Fox)
The Simpsons – Bill Plympton Couch Gag (20th Century-Fox)


Something that I encourage all ASIFA members to participate in is the "Member's Choice Award". This award allows for all ASIFA members in-good-standing to vote on their favorite nominated feature-length animated film. The winner is then presented a special award at the Annies.