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 Thoughts: Annies and Oscars, pt. 1

It was an animated weekend. Friday, after teaching my animation history class, I quickly finished grading most of the daily writing assignments, then tuned in to the 48th Annual Annie Awards -- presented on ASIFA Hollywood's "annieawards.org" website. If you haven't watched the ceremony yet, it's in the YouTube video embedded below. Some random thoughts I had about the ceremony are as follows:

• Really liked the animation that they showed at the beginning with the spinning zoetrope award animated through various styles.
• Hrm... need to see Hertzfeld's latest film sooner rather than later.
• Daisuke Tsutsumi seems like a really decent fellow. Very humble.
• We love you Brock Sampson!
• Nice to see Cartoon Saloon getting some love.
• Shroom's Odyssey by Piccalo Pictures - I put this on my list of films to track down.
• Am really liking the zoetrope bumper animations!
• Awards ceremony seems to be going at a pretty steady clip since people don't have to walk to and from the front of the auditorium.
• Another win for Wolfwalkers. Cartoon Saloon is getting the love tonight!
• Heh. The Frank Gladstone teleconference "cat" filter thing was funny...
• Epic Games' Unreal engine has come a really looooong way! :o
• Hoping against hope that Riot Games wins the award for Best Character Animation - Video Game... they didn't :(
• Nora Twomey is looking healthy. Glad she beat cancer. The industry would be greatly diminished without her.
• Definitely need to watch Transformers: War for Cybertron.
• Y'know, Over the moon looks interesting. Might have to put that one and Croods: A New Age on my list of features to track down.
• Hrm. Pixar's Soul is getting some love tonight.
• Heh. Pixar's Lamp Life looks funny.
• Yeah, still need to see Farmageddon. My list of features to watch continues to grow! I really miss the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema. :(
• Would love to hear all those stories about Willie Ito... Loved the little video trick they did for the presenting of his Windsor McCay Award.
• Bruce W. Smith was pretty funny and sincere. Great acceptance speech for his Windsor McCay Award.
• Okay, not the biggest Critical Role fan, but their intro was clever. Reminds me of the "Play All" gag on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD.
• Wolfwalkers wins again--this time for voice acting. Good night for Cartoon Saloon.
• Okay the Pixar best writing award "because of zoom" intro was hysterical! Soul is getting bumped up on my list of animated features to catch up on once the semester is over.
• Loved the animated portrait shout out to Brenda Banks during the In Memoriam video.
• Oh wow! I had forgotten that Gene Deitch had passed. Man that stings. I remember reading his part-bio/part-lessons for animators e-book on AWN.com many years ago. :(
• Probably the best, most touching 'In Memoriam' segment I've ever seen. with the animated portraits of select artists.
• Tartakovsky's Primal won the award for Best TV/Media - General Audience. Still need to watch Primal but that opening sequence is so freaking brutal!
• Primal wins again... Glad Tartakovsky is getting some love... not sure about the 'shower scene' acceptance speech though.
• Wolfwalkers wins again! Best Direction Feature.
• Best Indie Feature: Wolfwalkers! Cartoon Saloon wins big tonight!
• Best Feature: Soul with a pretty clever acceptance speech by Pixar. I wonder if the award winners were told ahead of time so they could film these acceptance speech videos?

Afterwards, I finished grading the last few papers and shuffled downstairs to watch the latest episode of Invincible. I know that it premieres on Thursday night, but I kind of like watching it on Fridays. Nice treat for getting all my grading done.

Next on my list would be finding time to watch the Academy Award nominated shorts through the program that the DIA set up...

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