‘The Wild Robot’ Dominates Annie Awards for Animation

“The Wild Robot” was the big winner at the Annie Awards on Saturday evening, winning nine trophies at the annual ceremony that honors the best in animation as chosen by the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood.

The DreamWorks Animation and Universal release dominated a ceremony that was at one point interrupted by a fire alarm that caused Royce Hall to be evacuated. It won Best Feature and also took awards for direction, FX, character animation, character design, music, production design, voice acting and editorial. It went into the show with 10 nominations and won in every category in which it was nominated, with its only loss coming in the voice-acting category, where one “The Wild Robot” actor, Kit Connor, lost to another, Lupita Nyong’o.

While the Annies have a long history of sweeps, which critics have at times attributed to block voting, the nine wins for “The Wild Robot” are the most since Pixar’s “Coco” won a record 11 in 2018.

“Flow” won two awards, one for Best Feature – Independent and one for writing, a category in which “The Wild Robot” was not nominated. “Despicable Me 4” won the only other film award, for storyboarding.

“Inside Out 2” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” both sequels to films that had won 10 Annies, went into the show with seven nominations each and went home with no wins.

In the 23 years since the Academy established the Best Animated Feature category, the Annie winner has gone on to win the Oscar 15 times, but only twice in the last five years.  

In the TV/Media categories, Netflix’s “Arcane” extended its reign as the most successful television production in Annies history. It won seven awards, including for direction, music, character animation and storyboarding. Multiple awards were also won by “Orion and the Dark,” “Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” and “Dream Productions.”

The Dutch short film “Wander to Wonder” won in the Best Short Subject category, where the other nominees included two shorts that are nominated alongside it for the animated-short Oscar, “Beautiful Men” and “In the Shadow of the Cypress.”

The ceremony took place on the UCLA campus in West Los Angeles. About halfway through the show, Royce Hall was evacuated after a fire alarm went off, but restarted after a brief break.

The winners:

Best Feature: “The Wild Robot”
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Feature – Independent: “Flow”
(Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well Studio)

Best Special Production: “Orion and the Dark”
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Short Subject: “Wander to Wonder”
(Circe Films, Kaap Holland Film, Les Productions de Milou, Beast Animation, Blink Industries & Pictanovo)

Best Sponsored: “Fuzzy Feelings”
(Passion Pictures Hungry Man)

Best TV/Media – Preschool: “The Tiny Chef Show” Episode: “Tiny Chef’s Spooky Stump Spectacular”
(Imagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions and Nickelodeon Productions)

Best TV/Media – Children: “Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” – “The Molecular Level” (Flying Bark Productions, Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded Television, Cinema Gypsy)

Best TV/Media – Mature: “Bob’s Burgers” – “They Slug Horses, Don’t They?”
(20th Television Animation / FOX Entertainment)

Best TV/Media – Limited Series: “Dream Productions” – “A Night to Remember”
(Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Student Film: “Adiós”
(National Film and Television School)
José Prats, Bernardo Angeletti

Best FX – TV/Media: “Arcane” – “The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Guillaume Degroote, Aurélien Ressencourt, Adam Bachiri, Guillaume Zaouche, Jérôme Dupré
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best FX – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve Avoujageli
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Character Animation – TV/Media: “Arcane”
Tom Gouill
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best Character Animation – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Fabio Lignini
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Character Animation – Live Action: “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
Christian Kickenweitz, Aidan Martin, Allison Orr, Radiya Alam, Howard Sly
(Weta FX)

Best Character Animation – Video Game: “Neva”
Nomada Studio Animation Team
(Nomada Studio)

Best Character Design – TV/Media: “Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “The Molecular Level”
Jose Lopez
(Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy Productions)

Best Character Design – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Genevieve Tsai
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Direction – TV/Media: “Arcane – The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Arnaud Delord, Pascal Charrue, Bart Maunoury
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best Direction – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Chris Sanders
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Music – TV/Media: “Arcane” – “The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Ryan Jillian Santiago, Alexander Seaver, Simon Wilcox
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best Music – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Kris Bowers
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Production Design – TV/Media: “Arcane” – “The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Arnaud-Loris Baudry, Julien Georgel, Faustine Dumontier, Charlotte O’Neill
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best Production Design – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Raymond Zibach, Ritchie Sacilioc
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Storyboarding – TV/Media: “Arcane” – “Killing is a Cycle”
Joséphine Meis
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best Storyboarding – Feature: “Despicable Me 4”
Habib Louati
(Illumination)

Best Voice Acting – TV/Media: “Dream Productions” – “Out of Body”
Paula Pell as Paula
(Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Voice Acting – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Lupita Nyong’o as Roz
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Writing – TV/Media: “Orion and the Dark” – “Orion and the Dark”
Charlie Kaufman
(DreamWorks Animation)

Best Writing – Feature: “Flow”
Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža
(Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio)

Best Editorial – TV/Media: “Arcane” – “Pretend Like It’s the First Time”
Nazim Meslem, Gilad Carmel, Roberto Fernandez
(A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix)

Best Editorial – Feature: “The Wild Robot”
Mary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian Parker
(DreamWorks Animation)

Ub Iwerks Award: Alberto Menache
June Foray Award: Women in Animation
Special Achievement Award: “Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt’s Animated Films” by Pete Docter and Don Peri
Windsor McCay Award: Eunice Macaulay, Normand Roger, Aaron Blaise