"Klaus" and "I Lost My Body" surprisingly dominant at the Annies

Will "Klaus" get the ultimate delivery -- an Oscar! -- in February?by Nathaniel R

Netflix had a very good night at the Annie Awards via their international outreach to animators. The TV awards were dominated by their anthology series "Love Death, and Robots" and the feature film prizes were hogged by Spain's Klaus (with 6 awards) and France's I Lost My Body (with 3). That's a surprising outcome for an awards night usually dominated by American blockbusters.

Curiously Frozen II, which is not nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, was the only one of the high profile American films to win a prize. Toy Story 4, HTTYD: Hidden World, and Missing Link all came up entirely empty-handed despite plentiful Annie nominations. Best Animated Feature might just prove to be the only true nail-biter on Oscar night.

The full list of Annie Award winners is after the jump...

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It's a very tight race for this year's Annie Awards

by Nathaniel R

Oops. So much was happening this week we completely neglected the Annie nominations. The ceremony will be held on January 25th. There's no clear frontrunner this year with Missing Link and Frozen 2 tied for the most nominations. Their nearest competitors are not far behind. In other words Klaus, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World , I Lost My Body, and Toy Story 4 were also clearly well liked enough to win big. That's 6 features and when it comes time for the Oscar nominations there can be only 5. We can't discount the possibility that another non-American film besides I Lost My Body might prove a darkhouse spoiler with the Academy's animation branch which has proven open to international films (for nominations if not wins) and isn't always keen on blockbuster sequels.  We should also keep a close eye on Japan's International Feature Oscar submission Weathering With You which got some love here at the Annies, too.

The complete list of nominations and a few comments after the jump...

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Annie Awards swing giddily into the "Spider-Verse" and might predict Oscar's Animated Short winner

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...

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"Incredibles 2" Earns its Title with 11 Annie Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The Annie Award nominations have been released with Disney totally and utterly dominant: Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet lead with 11 and 10 nominations respectively and even when the prizes don't involve animated films (such as with animated effects or animation work in live-action features) the nominations still lean heavily toward a Disney majority.

But all is not lost for non-Disney contenders hoping to win something at the Annies or to score one of those five coveted Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars. Into the Spider-Verse, Isle of Dogs, and Early Man have to be taken seriously as Oscar threats and though foreign animated productions never fare all that well at the very American-centric Annie Awards, Oscar is a different story and both Japan's Mirai and Hungary's Ruben Brandt Collector, scored two nominations with the animation guild. They were already looking like the two most likely foreign players to spoil the Oscar dreams of some big studio CG effort and this confirms it. The complete list of nominees is after the jump along with a few comments...

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Coco Rules Over the Annie Awards

by Nathaniel R

In one of the least shocking events of this awards season, Disney/Pixar's Coco swept the Annie Awards this weekend, winning in every category in which it was nominated. 2017 was widely seen as an underwhelming year for animated features but we should face facts: Coco would have been a strong contender for Oscar gold in many other years, too.

The complete list of winners (Coco wasn't eligible in every category) and a few more comments after the jump...

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