Annie Awards swing giddily into the "Spider-Verse" and might predict Oscar's Animated Short winner 
Sunday, February 3, 2019 at 10:45AM
NATHANIEL R in Annie Awards, Best Animated Feature, Best Friend, Big Mouth, BoJack Horseman, Incredibles 2, Into the Spider-Verse, Mickey Mouse, Trevor Jimenez, animated films, precursor awards, short films

by Nathaniel R

The directors of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had a great great night at the Annie Awards

Though Disney dominated the Annie nominations with huge tallies for both Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet  it was Sony Animation's all time biggest hit that proved the ultimate champ with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hogging the big prizes at the event. Other big winners were Disney's Mickey Mouse, and two series from Netflix: Hilda  and Bojack Horseman. The winners list and commentary including a few full winning short films and notes on Oscar's animated short race after the jump...

Best Animated Feature

Looking increasingly good for the Animated Feature win at the Oscar, but there is still a spoiler possibility for Incredibles 2  since almost no one loves Pixar more than AMPAS.

Best Animated Independent Feature

 

 

Unsurprising win, given that Oscar nomination. Congratulations to Mamoru Hosoda who we had the pleasure of interviewing.

Best Animated Special Production

Strange umbrella category since a section of a feature film makes it in (and wins) along with animated specials.

Best Animated Short Subject

Weekends- "A Personal Story" from Trevor Jimenez on Vimeo.

 

Weekends is a nominee at the Oscars. The director Trevor Jimenez puts a lot of his sketches on his tumblr so check that out.  (Among the competitors here Lost & Found was on the Oscar finalist list but didn't make it to the nominations.) For what it's worth the Annie short winner often takes the Oscar but not always consider the last 10 years

2017 BOTH PRIZES: Dear Basketball
2016 BOTH PRIZES: Piper
2015 Annie: World of Tomorrow / Oscar: Bear Story
2014 BOTH PRIZES:  Feast
2013 Annie: Get a Horse! / Oscar: Mr Hublot
2012 BOTH PRIZES Paperman
2011: Annie: Adam & Dog / Oscar: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore
2010: Annie: Day & Night / Oscar: The Lost Thing
2009: Annie: Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 2/  Oscar: Logorama
2008: Annie: A Matter of Loaf and Death / Oscar: La Maison en Petits Cubes

An interesting note about this history is, that in every single case from the past 10 years if the winners were different at the Oscar, the Oscar winner was NOT actually nominated for the Annie. That's good news for all four of Weekends competitors for Best Animated Short Film this year since none of them were Annie nominated. The last time the eventual Oscar winner was nominated but lost at the Annies was in 2005 for The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation.

And a trivia note: This year is the very first time in Oscar history that 3 separate films nominated for Best Animated Short at the Oscar's are from Asian filmmakers (Weekends, One Small Step, and Pixar's Bao). Jimenez is a Filipino-Canadian and has been a story artist on several major Hollywood features (including Coco and Finding Dory) but Weekends is an independent short.

Best Virtual Reality Production

Age of Sail was on the Oscar finalist list for short but didn't make it to the nominations. And then lost here though it didn't quite go home empty-handed from the Annies.

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial

Loved this commercial first time I saw it.

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

 

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children

 

As a devotee of Trollhunters I was a bit sad it lost but will check out Hilda.

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

 

Have to admit I've never quite understood the appeal of BoJack Horseman. I get the satirical merit but find the animation itself and character designs offputting to look at for full episode lengths. Bob's Burgers remains a delight but I would have given this to the truly brilliant Big Mouth  which improved considerably in season 2 (and season 1 was already great)

Best Student Film

Pretty terrific short, right? 

Animated Effects in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Well deserved. The effects on that show were always so strong. So sad it's over *sniffle*

Animated Effects in an an Animated Feature Production

Weirdly they skipped over their favourite animated feature here, even for a nomination but one must consider this a very deserving win for Ralph Breaks the Internet. Not a fan of the picture overall (too glib and capitalist) but the effects throughout were quite something.

Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Another prize for Hilda

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production

 

 

Character Animation in a Live Action Production

 

Hmmm, the animated sequence in Mary Poppins Return is arguably the highlight of the whole picture but is this really a deserving win in this category with Christopher Robin's stuffed animals, and Thanos (!!!) and the world's purest bear hero all right there for the taking?!

Character Animation in a Video Game

Do any of you play any of these?

Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

The winner won for the season 2 episode of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure when the characters were turned into birds.

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

 

 

Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Eddie Trigueros has directed 15 episodes of this new Mickey Mouse series. I think this prize is for Season 4?

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Still so annoying that they skipped a Wes Anderson nomination in this category.

Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

 

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Finally a win for Incredibles 2

Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Age of Sale didn't quite make it to an Oscar nomination, but it sure is memorable looking, isn't it?

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

 

I love Into the Spider-Verse just like most sentient mortals but was hoping for an Isle of Dogs win in this case because that design work is just awesome. Adam Stockhausen continues to be one of the greatest artists in any cinematic profession. As for the winner, this is Justin Thompson's first Annie nomination but he previously won the Emmy for Star Wars Clone Wars on TV

Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

One of Dean Kelly's storyboards from Incredibles 2

 

One of only two prizes for Incredibles 2. Unfortunately we don't know what differentiates Dean Kelly's work from Bobby Alcid Rubio's work or why they have separate nominations (since many of the nominations in other categories are shared even though the people involved have different jobs)

Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

This is Arnett's first Annie nomination for playing BoJack Horseman.  I really don't understand how Maya Rudolph can exist in this world and do the kind of next level voice work she does on Big Mouth and not be up for prizes but she was not nominated at the Emmys or the Annies in either of her seasons.

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

 

On the whole I find Bryan Cranston one of the most overrated actors working but this particular prize is a sound choice. I love that Eric singled him out in our "best line readings" post . 

Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Yet another prize for Hilda. Perhaps we should all watch this?

 

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Great choice.

Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

 

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

JURIED SPECIAL AWARDS

 

 

I once downloaded Blender Open Source but it was way too non-intuitive for me. For many years I really wanted to be an animator and I thought I'd doodle and see what it was like but so technically complex!

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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