Nominations have been announced for the 50th annual Annie Awards, which honor special achievements by animated filmmakers. This year, Netflix garnered the lion’s share of nominations, with a total of 50 in the feature and series categories. Leading the pack is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which earned nine nominations on the heels of its Golden Globe trophy.
Two other Neflix projects are contending for best animated feature, including The Sea Beast and Wendell & Wild. It also copped a nomination in the indie feature category, for My Father’s Dragon with Cartoon Saloon.
Competing with Pinocchio for best feature are Disney-Pixar’s Turning Red and DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The other contenders in the indie feature group are Charlotte, from January Films/Balthazar Productions and Walking the Dog; Inu-Oh, from Science SARU; Little Nicholas, Happy as Can Be, from On Classics (Mediawan) and Bidibul Productions, and Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, from Marcel the Movie, LLC.
Other winners: The Ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement will be presented to Visual Effects Reference Platform, initially developed by Nick Cannon and Francois Chardavoine. The Certificate of Merit Award for service to the animation milieu will go to voice actor John Omohundro.
Anime films were added to the Annie awards categories in 2016 in order to “recognize not only features in wide release, but also the independent animators, international studios, anime and special productions that might not otherwise get the attention they deserve.” The last anime winner was Mirai by Mamoru Hosoda, which won in 2019.
In addition to these and dozens of other nominations, two industry leaders will each receive a Winsor McCay award for lifetime or career achievement: Pete Doctor, writer/director and CEO of Pixar; TV series creator Craig McCracken; and the late short-film maker Evelyn Lambert. In addition, the author/historian/educator Mindy Johnson will receive the June Foray Award for her benevolent contributions to the animation field.
This years Annies will be presented Saturday, February 25 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. It will be the first in-person event since the COVID lockdown.
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