Annie Award nominations: It's "Soul" vs "Wolfwalkers" again

by Nathaniel R

This just in: Soul and Wolfwalkers are tied for most nominations (10) for the 48th annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animated entertainment. Onward is in a distant third place with 7 nominations. The Annie  ceremony will be virtual event this year, streamed live on April 16th at 7 PM PST. 

The full list of nominations (NOW UPDATED WITH WINNERS!) and some commentary after the jump...

BEST FEATURE

• Onward (Pixar)
• Soul (Pixar) ★
• The Croods: A New Age (Dreamworks)
• The Willoughbys (Netflix /Bron)
• Trolls World Tour (DreamWorks)

Since critics awards and precursors have been so ultra focused on Soul this year, it remains to be seen whether these other mainstream titles will have lots of support from Oscar voters. Can Pixar snag two nominations? Will The Croods: New Age being a box office hit in a year without those things, help it past Oscar's resistance to sequels? (The absence of Over the Moon is noted but it does show up in some other categories.)

BEST INDIE FEATURE

Ride Your Wave

• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Studiocanal / Aardman / Netflix)
• Calamity Jane (Maybe Movies)
• On-Gaku: Our Sound (Rock’n Roll Mountain / Tip Top)
• Ride Your Wave (Science SARU)
• Wolfwalkers (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine) ★

All of these are eligible for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, too. We know Oscar loves Aardman so Shaun the Sheep has a good shot and Wolfwalkers will obviously be there. But can either of the Japanese titles surprise... or maybee France's Calamity Jane? The latter was nominated for the EFA prize for Best Animated Feature. (Studio Ghibli's Earwig and the Witch isn't nominated here but does score in a feew other categories. )

We have a weird hunch that Calamity Jane is going to make the Oscar list but this hunch has no real backing. We'll see.

BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION

• Baba Yaga (Baobab Studios)
• Libresse/Bodyform – #WombStories (Chelsea Pictures)
• Nixie & Nimbo (Hornet)
• Shooom’s Odyssey (Picolo Pictures)
• The Snail and the Whale (Magic Light Pictures) ★

The Snail and the Whale is also a finalist for Best Animated Short. Sally Hawkins voices the titular snail. Shoom's Odyssey a French & Dutch language 26 minute short did pretty well at the Annies as it features into the storyboarding category, too. Wonder why it wasn't on Oscar's longlist? 

BEST SHORT SUBJECT

KKUM

• Filles Bleues, Peur Blanche (Miyu Productions)
• KKUM (open the portal)
• Souvenir Souvenir (Blast Production) ★
• The Places Where We Live (Cake) (FX Productions and FX)
• World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (Don Hertzfeldt) 

None of these titles are in the finalist list for Oscar's Animated Short though only KKUM (which looks very cool) and World of Tomorrow 3 (brilliant obviously; it's Don Hertzfeldt) were eligible.

BEST SPONSORED

• Erste Group ‘Edgar’s Christmas’ (Pasion Animation Studios)
• Max & Maxine (Hornet)
• The Last Mile (Nexus Studios)
• There’s a Monster in My Kitchen (Cartoon Saloon, Mother) ★
• Travel the Vote (Hornet)

BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOL

• Buddi Episode: Snow Unanico Group
• Muppet Babies Episode: Wock-a-bye-Fozzie Oddbot/Disney Junior
• Stillwater Episode: The Impossible Dream/Stuck in the Rain Apple/Gaumont/Scholastic
• The Adventures of Paddington Episode: Paddington Digs a Tunnel to Peru Blue-Zoo Animation Studio and Nickelodeon Animation Studio ★
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: I Am Madam President Episode: I am Madam President 9 Story Media Group, Brown Bag Films

BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDREN

She-Ra and the Princess of Power "Heart Part Two"

• Hilda Episode: Chapter 9: The Deerfox Silvergate Media for Netflix ★
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode: Finale Part 4: Rise Nickelodeon Animation Studio
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Episode: Heart Part 2 DreamWorks Animation
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode: Shattered Lucasfilm Animation
• Victor and Valentino Episode: The Lonely Haunts Club 3: La Llorona Cartoon Network Studios

BEST TV/MEDIA – GENERAL AUDIENCE

• Close Enough Episode: Logan’s Run’d/Room Parents Cartoon Network Studios
• Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal Episode: Coven Of The Damned Cartoon Network Studios ★
• Harley Quinn Episode: Something Borrowed, Something Green Eshugadee Productions in association with Warner Bros. Animation
• Rick and Morty Episode: The Vat of Acid Episode Rick and Morty LLC
• The Midnight Gospel Episode: Mouse of Silver Titmouse Animation for Netflix

BEST STUDENT FILM

• 100,000 Acres of Pine Student director: Jennifer Alice Wright School: The Animation Workshop
• Coffin Student director: Yuanqing Cai, Nathan Crabot, Houzhi Huang, Mikolaj Janiw, Mandimby Lebon, Théo Tran Ngoc School: Gobelins, l’école de l’image
• La Bestia Student director: Marlijn Van Nuenen, Ram Tamez, Alfredo Gerard Kuttikatt School: Gobelins, l’école de l’image ★
• Latitude du printemps Student director: Sylvain Cuvillier, Chloé Bourdic, Théophile Coursimault, Noémie Halberstam, Ma?lis Mosny, Zijing Ye School: Rubika
• O Black Hole! Student director: Renee Zhan Student producer: Jesse Romain School: National Film and Television School, UK

BEST FX FOR TV/MEDIA

• Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Episode: Sirocco Fire Explosion -Chris Browne, Brand Webb, Russell Richardson, Ardy Ala, Reggie Fourmyle
• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Episode: Welcome to Jurassic World -Emad Khalili, Ivan Wang ★
• Lamp Life Episode: Lamp Life -Greg Gladstone, Keith Daniel Klohn, Matthew WonG
• Tales of Arcadia: Wizards Episode: Killahead, Part Two - Greg Lev, Igor Lodeiro, Brandon Tyra, Cui Wei, Ma Xiao
• Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy (Siege) Episode: Episode 6 - Masanori Sakakibara

BEST FX FOR FEATURE

Over the Moon

• Over the Moon - Ian Farnsworth, Brian Casper, Reinhold Rittinger, Zoran Stojanoski , Jennifer Lasrado
• Soul -Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller ★
• The Croods: A New Age - Amaury Aubel, Domin Lee, Alex Timchenko, Andrew Wheeler, Derek Cheun
• Trolls World Tour - Zachary Glynn, Landon Gray, Youxi Woo, John Kosnik, Doug Rizeako
• Wolfwalkers -Kim Kelly, Leena Lecklin, Frédéric Plumey, Almu Redondo, Nicole Storck

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV/MEDIA

• Alien Xmas - Kim Blanchette
• BoJack Horseman Episode: Good Damage - James Bowman
• Cosmos: Possible Worlds Episode: Vavilov -Dan MacKenzie
• Hilda -David Laliberté ★
• Lamp Life Episode: Lamp Life -Lucas Fraga Pacheco

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATURE

The Willoughbys

• Onward -Shaun Chacko
• Soul -Michal Makarewicz ★
• The Croods: A New Age -Rani Naamani
• The Willoughbys - Andrés Bedate Marti
• Wolfwalkers - Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTION

• The Christmas Chronicles 2 - Nick Stein, Caroline Ting, Sebastian Trujillo, David Yabu, Paul Ramsden
• The Mandalorian -  Nathan Fitzgerald, Leo Ito, Chris Rogers, Eung Ho Lo, Emily Luk ★
• The Umbrella Academy 2 - Aidan Martin, Hunter Parks, Craig Young, Viki Yeo, Krystal Sae Eua
• Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made -Anders Beer, Marianne Morency, Hennadii Prykhodko, Sophie Burie, Cedric Le Poullennec

Not sure why this category has only four nominees. Almost everything else has five.

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAME

• League of Legends - Jose “Sho” Hernandez, Lana Bachynski , Christopher Hsing, Matthew Johnson, Jason Hendrich
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales -Brian Wyser, Michael Yosh, Danny Garnett, David Hancock ★
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Jim Donovan, Warren Goff, Boris Hiestand, Kim Nguyen, Jason Martinsen
• The Last of Us Part II --Jeremy Yates, Eric Baldwin, Almudena Soria, Michal Mach, August Davies

Not sure why this category has only four nominees. Almost everything else has five.

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIA

• Amphibia Episode: The Shut-In! Joe Sparrow ★
• BNA Episode: Runaway Raccoon  Yusuke Yoshigaki
• Craig of the Creek - Danny Hynes
• Looney Tunes Cartoons -Jim Soper
• The Owl House Episode: Young Blood- Marina Gardner

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATURE

Queen Barb in Trolls World Tour

• Soul -Daniel López Muñoz
• The Croods: A New Age -Joe Pitt
• The Willoughbys - Craig Kellman
• Trolls World Tour - Timothy Lamb
• Wolfwalkers -Federico Pirovano ★

Is it just my imagination or didn't the Annies used to note which characters these nominees had designed?

BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIA

• Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal Episode: Plague Of Madness - Genndy Tartakovsky ★
• Great Pretender Episode: Case 1_1: Los Angeles Connection- Hiro Kaburagi
• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart Episode: Mao Mao’s Nakey - Michael Moloney
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode: Battle Nexus NYC - Alan Wan
• The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse  Episode: Hard to Swallow - Eddie Trigueros

BEST DIRECTION – FEATURE

Calamity Jane

• Calamity Jane - Rémi Chayé
• Over the Moon - Glen Keane
• Ride Your Wave -Masaaki Yuasa
• Soul - Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
• Wolfwalkers -Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart ★

Interesting that these don't line up well with the top category. There's only 1 from that category (Soul) as well as one film that didn't get a Feature nomination (Over the Moon) and then 3 nominees from the Indie Feature category (Calamity Jane, Ride Your Wave, Wolfwalkers). 

BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIA

• Blood of Zeus Episode: Escape or Die -Paul Edward-Francis
• Mira, Royal Detective Episode: The Great Diwali Mystery -Amritha Vaz, Matthew Tishler, Jeannie Lurie
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode: Crisis Point - Chris Westlake
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode: Victory and Death -Kevin Kiner ★
• The Tiger That Came to Tea - David Arnold, Don Black

BEST MUSIC – FEATURE

• Onward -Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna
• Over the Moon - Steven Price, Christopher Curtis, Marjorie Duffield, Helen Park
• Soul -Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste ★
• The Willoughbys - Mark Mothersbaugh, Alessia Cara, Jon Levine, Colton Fisher
• Wolfwalkers -Bruno Coulais, Kíla

Only Soul made Oscar's finalist list for Best Score.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIA

• Baba Yaga -Glenn Hernandez, Matthieu Saghezchi
• Shooom’s Odyssey -Julien Bisaro ★
• The Adventures of Paddington Episode: Paddington And Halloween -Negar Bagheri
• To: Gerard -Raymond Zibach
• Trash Truck -Eastwood Wong, Sylvia Liu, Elaine Lee, Tor Aunet, Lauren Zurcher

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE

Wolfwalkers

• Onward - Noah Klocek, Sharon Calahan, Huy Nguyen, Bert Berry, Paul Conrad
• Soul - Steve Pilcher, Albert Lozano, Paul Abadilla, Bryn Imagire
• The Willoughbys - Kyle McQueen
• Trolls World Tour -Kendal Cronkhite Shaindlin, Timothy Lamb
• Wolfwalkers -María Pareja, Ross Stewart, Tomm Moore ★

BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA

• Archibald’s Next Big Thing Episode: Baritone Tea Part 1 -Ben McLaughlin
• Big City Greens Episode: Cheap Show - Kiana Khansmith
• Looney Tunes Cartoons - Andrew Dickman ★
• Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge -Milo Neuman
• Shooom’s Odyssey -Julien Bisaro

BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATURE

Soul

• Earwig and the Witch -Goro Miyazak
• Over the Moon - Glen Keane
• Soul -Trevor Jimenez ★
• The Croods: A New Age -Evon Freeman
• Wolfwalkers -Guillaume Lorin

You might remember the name Trevor Jimenez from a past Oscar race. He directed the short Weekends which was Oscar-nominated for 2018.

BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIA

• Dragons: Rescue Riders Episode: Hunt for the Golden Dragon - Jeff Bennett (Erik the Wretched)
• It’s Pony Episode: Episode 107 - Jessica DiCicco (Annie)
• Phineas and Ferb the Movie Episode: Candace Against the Universe - Ashley Tisdale (Candace)
• Tales of Arcadia: Wizards Episode: Our Final Act - David Bradley (Merlin) ★
• ThunderCats ROAR! Episode: ThunderSlobs -Patrick Seitz (Mumm-Ra, Tygra)

Do you watch any of these shows? In that case do you like these nominations? We're sad that Big Mouth isn't here. 

BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATURE

Vanessa Marshall for Earwig and the Witch

• Earwig and the Witch -Vanessa Marshall (Bella Yaga)
• Onward- Tom Holland (Ian Lightfoot)
• Over the Moon - Robert G. Chiu (Chin)
• The Croods: A New Age -Nicolas Cage (Grug)
• Wolfwalkers -Eva Whittaker (Mebh Óg MacTíre) ★

Nicolas Cage also played Grug in the original Croods (2013) but he wasn't nominated  for it. Aside from Cage and Holland, the Annies chose supporting characters for the nominations this time around. Vanessa Marshall is a well regarded voice actor. She's been up for 8 "Behind the Voice Actor" awards these past several years (though she hasn't won).  Robert G Chiu and Eva Whitaker are both children... so two Hollywood stars are up against two child actors and one respected adult voice actor. Interesting mix!

BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA

• Big Mouth Episode: The New Me -Andrew Goldberg, Patti Harrison, Andrew Goldberg ★
• Craig of the Creek - Jeff Trammell, Tiffany Ford, Dashawn Mahone, Najja Porter
• Fancy Nancy Episode: Nancy’s New Friend -Krista Tucker, Andy Guerdat, Matt Hoverman, Laurie Israel, Marisa Evans-Sanden
• Harley Quinn Episode: Something Borrowed, Something Green - Sarah Peters
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Episode: Heart Part 2 -Noelle Stevenson

BEST WRITING – FEATURE

• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon - Mark Burton, Jon Brown
• Onward -Dan Scanlon, Jason Headley, Keith Bunin
• Over the Moon - Audrey Wells
• Soul - Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers ★
• Wolfwalkers -Will Collins

BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA

To Gerard

• Cops and Robbers - Brandon Terry, Ezra Dweck, Del Spiva
• Hilda Episode: Chapter 9: The Deerfox - John McKinnon ★
• If Anything Happens I Love You - Peter Ettinger, Michael Babcock
• Lamp Life Episode: Lamp Life -Serena Warner
• To: Gerard - James Ryan

This actually refers to film editing. To Gerard and If Anything Happens I Love You are both Oscar finalists for Best Animated Short

BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE

• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon - Sim Evan-Jones, -Adrian Rhodes
• Calamity Jane -Benjamin Massoubre
• Onward -Catherine Apple, Anna Wolitzky, Dave Suther
• Soul - Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk ★
• The Willoughbys - Fiona Toth, Ken Schretzmann

FOUR JURIED AWARDS
These final prizes are non-competitive and will be going to the following people.

WINDSOR MCCAY AWARD - Overall Career Honor

• Willie Ito
• Sue Nichols (posthumously)
• Bruce Smith 

JUNE FORAY AWARD - A charitable impact kind of honor

• Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi

UB IWERKS - a Technical Achievement honor 

• Epic Games for the "Unreal Engine" 

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT

• Howard, the documentary on the late songwriter Howard Ashman

Comments

[Glenn Dunks]

I haven't seen many of the international titles, but this wasn't a particularly exciting year for animation. I didn't care much for SOUL and the only few I did were WOLFWALKERS, SHAUN THE SHEEP and–my favourite of the year, but which doesn't appear to have been eligible?–THE WOLF HOUSE.

[John T]

I think we’re looking at Soul, Wolfwalkers, Farmageddon, Onward, & Over the Moon, though if one of the latter three falter (none are immune) it will be Croods 2 and not a random film that gets in. Croods 2 box office is perhaps the most impressive theatrical feat of the past year, and the original WAS nominated, so it’s not a stretch to include the sequel. I just don't think there's a true surprise hiding in this field because in a traditional year Wolfwalkers & Over the Moon would be the "Klaus"-style nominee...we just don't have box office from the Pixar or Dreamworks titles to dwarf them how they usually would be.