Last night, our very own Alanah Cervantes and Dan Berry got to attend the 47th Annual Annie Awards, held at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA… and they had a blast!
The Annie Awards are the glamourous event held to celebrate the brightest and the best of The International Animated Film Association: ASIFA-Hollywood – originally designed to honour the lifetime achievements of legendary veterans of the field, the Annie Awards now recognizes the year’s best animated productions and outstanding individual achievements in the field of animation.
Alanah and Dan’s evening started out with them taking photos on the red carpet of the presenters and nominees. Some of their red carpet highlights including Kaley Cuoco (who only stopped for the photographers, of which there was only two, including ourselves), Genki Kawamura (producer of WEATHERING WITH YOU), and Christophe Beck with Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez who collectively wrote and produced the music for massive Disney hit FROZEN 2.
They also talked to Henry Selick who was at the ceremony to receive the Winsor McCay Award for recognition of lifetime or career contributions in animation. Also, Bill Farmer (who recently celebrated his 33rd anniversary as the voice of Goofy), and Margaret Kerry (the original model for Tinker Bell for 1953’s PETER PAN movie).
After the red carpet portion of the evening was over, Alanah and Dan made their way to the press lounge to watch the awards ceremony.
The big winner of the night was Netflix with eighteen wins of which KLAUS picked up wins in all seven awards it was up for, including Best Feature, Best Character Animation (Animated Feature), Best Character Design (Feature), Best Direction (Feature), and more. Two Netflix Original productions also represented strongly in the winning categories, with LOVE, DEATH, AND ROBOTS picking up four awards and I LOST MY BODY taking home three.
The full press release is below with all the winner for all thirty-two awards that were handed out last night:
NETFLIX SWEEPS 47TH ANNIE AWARDS
STREAMING GIANT GARNERS TOP HONORS IN 18 CATEGORIES, INCLUDING BEST FEATURE, BEST FEATURE-INDEPENDENT
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (January 25, 2020) – Netflix was the big winner at the 47th Annual Annie Awards™ Saturday evening, garnering top honors in 18 categories, including:
- Best Feature: KLAUS
- Best Feature – Independent: I LOST MY BODY
- Character Animation in an Animated Feature: Sergio Martins (KLAUS)
- Character Design in an Animated Television/Media Production: Keiko Murayama (CARMEN SANDIEGO)
- Directing in An Animated Feature: Sergio Pablos (KLAUS)
- Music in an Animated Television/Media Production: Rob Cairns (LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS)
- Writing in an Animated Feature: I LOST MY BODY
- Editorial in an Animated Feature: KLAUS
Other awards included:
- Best Animated Special Production: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: HOMECOMING (DreamWorks Animation)
- Best Animated Short Subject: UNCLE THOMAS: ACCOUNTING FOR THE DAYS (Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs)
- Best Animated TV/Media Commercial: ‘The Mystical Journey Of Jimmy Page’s ’59 Telecaster’ (Nexus Studios)
- Best General Audience Animated TV/Media Production: BOJACK HORSEMAN (‘The New Client’) (Torante Productions, LLC for Netflix)
- Best Animated TV/Media Production for Children: DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE (‘Carried Away’) (Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel)
- Best Animated TV/Media Production for Preschool Children: ASK THE STORYBOTS (‘Why Do We Have To Recycle?’) (JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix); and
- Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production: Weta Digital (AVENGERS: ENDGAME)
For years, we’ve described ASIFA-Hollywood as a sort of United Nations of Animation. This year, that comparison rings even more clearly,” remarked Frank Gladstone, ASIFA’s executive director. “With nearly 2,000 submissions from productions worldwide, the award is becoming much more an international event. Many more films, many more artists and many new names we are learning to pronounce!”
The evening began with a special tribute to Richard Williams – Canadian– British animator, director, and writer, best known as animation director on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988), for which he won two of his three Academy Awards (the third for A CHRISTMAS CAROL in 1973), and for his unfinished feature film THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER (1993).
VIP Guests and Presenters included Frank Marshall, Christopher Lloyd, Ed Asner, Henry Selick, Jorge R. Gutierrez, Ron Clements, John Musker, Glen Keane, Diedrich Bader, Katy Mixon, Yeardley Smith, Sergio Pablos, Chris Butler, Jeremy Chapin, Pat Fraley, Margaret Kerry, Bill Farmer, Julie Nathanson, Ashley Boettcher, Todd Wilderman, Tenzing Norgay Trainor and Taro Morishima.
Juried Awards were presented honouring unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation. Three Winsor McCay Award recipients were selected by the ASIFA-Hollywood Board of Directors for their exemplary industry careers:
- Satoshi Kon (posthumously) – Japanese manga artist, director, animator and screenwriter on the now-classic films Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika
- Henry Selick – stop motion director, producer and writer, best known for directing the stop-motion films THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and CORALINE; and
- Ron Clements & John Musker – animators, animation directors, screenwriters, producers and one of Walt Disney Animation Studio’s leading director teams with nearly 40 years of animation credits, from THE LITTLE MERMAID to MOANA and many others, too numerous to mention.
The June Foray Award was presented to Jeanette Bonds – writer, independent animator, and co-founder and director of GLAS Animation; and the Ub Iwerks Award was presented to Jim Blinn – computer scientist who first became widely known for his early work in computer animation, and as a graphics expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), particularly on the pre-encounter animations for the Voyager project.
The Annie Awards honour overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 36 categories from best feature, best feature – independent, production design, character animation, and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, music, editing and voice acting, and have often been a predictor of the annual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
The ceremony was live-streamed again this year at www.annieawards.org/watch-it-live where animation enthusiasts and those unable to attend the event, could watch the show. A complete list of winners can be viewed at www.annieawards.org. Photos will be posted on the Annie Awards social media sites and video highlights of the ceremony will be uploaded to the Annies website in the next few days.
ASIFA-Hollywood is the world’s first and foremost professional organization dedicated to promoting the art of animation and celebrating the people who create it. Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest chapter of the international organization ASIFA, supports a range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Archive, Animation Aid Foundation, animated film preservation, special events, classes and screenings. Created in 1972 by June Foray, the Annie Awards have grown in scope and stature for over four decades. For more information on the Annie Awards™, please visit www.annieawards.org. For information about ASIFA-Hollywood, visit www.asifa-hollywood.org
