Nominees in the 46th annual Annie Awards were some of the most entertaining in recent years. From Best Student Film to Best Animated Feature – the talent was extraordinary. The nominees for Best Animated feature included:

• First 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

Tonight’s most prestigious award for Best Animated Feature went to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

 

But it didn’t end there. Tonight was a night for fans of the spider-verse with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse taking home Annies for:

• Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated Feature Production
• Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated Feature Production
• Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
• Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production
• Outstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
• Outstanding Achievement, Editing in an Animated Production

Earlier this year, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Golden Globe for best animated feature film. February 24th, all animation eyes will be watching the 91st annual Academy Awards to find out if history repeats itself. In five of the last seven years, the winner of the Annie for Best Animated Feature went on to take the Oscar for animated feature (2018’s, Coco, 2017’s Zootopia, 2015’s Inside Out, 2013’s Frozen and 2011’s Rango).

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Incredibles 2 – Pixar Animation Studios

Isle of Dogs – Fox Searchlight Pictures/Indian Paintbrush/American Empirical Pictures

First Man – Aardman Animations

Ralph Breaks The Internet – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Top Honors at the 46th Annual Annie Awards

A special shout-out to all of tonight’s top honor recipients including:

• Best Animated Feature-Independent
  Mirai
  Studio Chizu
• Best Animated Special Production
  Mary Poppins Returns
  Walt Disney Studios
• Best Animated Short Subject
  Weekends
  past lives productions
• Best Virtual Reality Production
  Crow: The Legend
  Baobab Studios
• Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial
  Greenpeace ‘There’s a Rang-Tan In My Bedroom’
  Passion Animation Studios
• Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children
  Ask the StoryBots
  JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix
• Best Animated Television / Broadcast Production For Children
  Hilda
  Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
• Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production
  BoJack Horseman
  Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
• Best Student Film
  Best Friend
  GOBELINS, l’école de l’image
  Nicholas OLIVIERI, Yi SHEN, Juliana DE LUCCA, Varun NAIR, and David FELIU

Best Friend – GOBELINS, l’école de l’image :: Nicholas OLIVIERI, Yi SHEN, Juliana DE LUCCA, Varun NAIR, and David FELIU

Best Animated Feature-Independent

Mirai Studio Chizu went home with the highest honor in the independent category – Best Animated Feature-Independent. Mirai is a daringly original story of love passed down through generations. When four-year-old Kun meets his new baby sister, his world is turned upside down. Named Mirai (meaning “future”), the baby quickly wins the hearts of Kun’s entire family.

The category for best Animated Independent Feature is always a favorite of ours at cg+news. Most everyone takes the time to see all of the films nominated for best Feature Animation…but they miss many of the gems in the independent category.

If you have the opportunity, these three independent films will be well worth your time.

Ruben Brandt, Collector
Ruben Brandt LLC

Ruben Brandt, a famous psychotherapist, is forced to steal 13 paintings from the world’s renowned museums and private collections to prevent his suffering from terrible nightmares he has as a result of subliminal messaging he received as a child. Accompanied by his four patients, he and his band of thieves strike regularly and with great success: the Louvre, Tate, Uffizi, Hermitage, the Museum of Modern Art.

“The Collector” quickly becomes the most wanted criminal in the world. Gangsters and headhunters chase him around the world while the reward for his capture keeps rising, approaching a hundred million dollars. A cartel of insurance companies entrusts Mike Kowalski, a private detective and leading expert on art theft, to solve the “Collector Case.”

MFKZ
Ankama / Studio 4ºC

The film centers on young Angelino and his skull-and-flame pal Vinz, who live in a seedy tenement in an LA-inspired dystopian metropolis – a burnt-out, gang and cockroach-ridden neo-urban hell. Following a scooter accident Angelino starts experiencing migraines and strange hallucinations, as well as fits of rage-inspired superpowers, as he slowly awakens to the truth of his origins: he is half-human and half-Macho, a supernatural alien race that is bent on taking over the planet.

Tito and the Birds
Bits Productions
Split Studio

Tito and the Birds is a film about a little boy and his journey to save the world. Tito, a shy 10-year-old boy, lives in a world on the brink of pandemic. Fear is crippling people, making them sick and transforming them. Tito realizes, based on his father’s past research, that there may be a way to utilize the local pigeon population and their songs to create a cure for the disease. His father was forced to leave when Tito was only six and the struggle to find a cure becomes linked with the search to find his father again, along with his own identity. Part action part drama, Tito’s journey is at once an uplifting and insightful adventure about a boy fighting to find out what is right and to learn how to overcome his own fear.

Broadcast

On the broadcast side, Netflix Animation was the shining star winning the prestigious Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production award for everyone’s favorite equine star BoJack Horseman. Will Arnett, voice of BoJack Horseman took the award for Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production.

BoJack Horseman

Walt Disney had its share of awards tonight. In broadcast, Walt Disney Television Animation’s Disney Mickey Mouse went home with the award for Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production and Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure won the award for Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production. On the film side, Walt Disney Studios’  Ralph Breaks The Internet took top honors in Animated Effects in a Animated Feature Production while Mary Poppins Returns garnered not one, but two awards: Best Animated Special Production and Animated Effects in a Animated Feature Production.

Hosted by ASIFA Hollywood, The Annual Annie Awards is the animation industry’s most prestigious event. On February 2, 2019, animators, VFX artists, writers, storyboard artists, editors, and producers gathered at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus to celebrate excellence in the field of animation. Fans of animation from around the globe joined from afar, watching the live stream of 46th Annual Annie Awards.

cg+news would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners! While the winners of the 46th Annual Annie Awards are outstanding, it’s well worth your time to enjoy all of this year’s nominees. In addition to the winners, many of the runners-up were winners in their own right.

And with that, we’re proud to present, the Winners of the 46th Annual Annie Awards.

Individual Achievement Categories

Animated Effects in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production
Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters
DreamWorks Animation Television
David M.V. Jones, Vincent Chou, Clare Yang

Animated Effects in a Animated Feature Production
Ralph Breaks The Internet
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Cesar Velazquez, Marie Tollec, Alexander Moaveni, Peter DeMund, Ian J. Coony

Character Animation in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Hilda
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
Scott Lewis

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
David Han

Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Mary Poppins Returns
Walt Disney Pictures
Chris Sauve, James Baxter, Sandro Cleuzo

Character Animation in a Video Game
GRIS
Nomada Studio
Adrian Miguel, Adrian Garcia, Adrian Miguel

Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure
Walt Disney Television Animation
Amanda Jolly

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Shiyoon Kim

Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Disney Mickey Mouse
Disney Television Animation
Eddie Trigueros

Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman and Peter Ramsey
Sony Pictures Animation

Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Disney Mickey Mouse
Disney Television Animation
Christopher Willis

Music in an Animated Feature Production
Incredibles 2
Pixar Animation Studios
Michael Giacchino

Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Age of Sail
Google Spotlight Stories, Broad Reach Pictures
Céline Desrumaux, Jasmin Lai

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Justin K. Thompson

Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Disney Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney Television Animation
Ramirez Ramos Alonso
–TIE–
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Nominees: Kevin Molina-Ortiz

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Incredibles 2
Pixar Animation Studios
Dean Kell

Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
BoJack Horseman
Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
Will Arnett

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Isle of Dogs
Bryan Cranston
Fox Searchlight Pictures / Indian Paintbrush / American Empirical Pictures

Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Hilda
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
Stephanie Simpson

Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Phil Lord , Rodney Rothman

Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production
Big Hero 6: The Series
Walt Disney Television Animation
Charles Jones, Joe Molinari, Dao Le, Vartan Nazarian, David Vazque

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Bob Fisher , Andrew Leviton, Vivek Sharma

Juried Awards

Winsor McCay Award
Ralph Eggleston – Academy Award-winning director, animator and art director
Frank Braxton (posthumously) – the first African-American animator, animation director and guild president
Andrea Romano – casting director, voice director and voice actress

Ub Iwerks Award
Blender Open Source Animation Software

June Foray Award
Adam Burke (posthumously)

Certificate of Merit
Jason Jones