Pixar’s “Soul” and Cartoon Saloon’s “Wolfwalkers” were the dominant films at the 48th annual Annie Awards Friday, with “Soul” winning seven awards and “Wolfwalkers” winning five.
“Soul” won in the Best Feature category and took additional awards for its writing, music, FX, character animation, storyboards and editorial. “Wolfwalkers” won for Best Indie Feature as well as for directing, character design, production design and voice acting.
No other feature film won an Annie, which is given out by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood. Since the Academy Awards started a Best Animated Feature category in 2001, the Annies winner in the Best Feature category has gone on to win the Oscar 13 times in 19 years, including four times in the last five years. (The one exception was last year, when “Toy Story 4” won the Oscar but “Klaus” surprisingly won the Annie.)
Pete Docter’s “Soul” was already considered a prohibitive frontrunner in the Oscar race, with Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s “Wolfwalkers” thought to be the only film with a remote chance to stage an upset.
In television categories, Netflix’s “Hilda” won three awards and Cartoon Network’s “Genndy Tartovsky’s Primal” won two, with other awards going to “The Adventures of Paddington,” “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” and “The Mandalorian.”
“The Snail and the Whale,” which was shortlisted but not nominated in the Oscars’ Best Animated Short category, won the Annie for Best Special Production, while “Souvenir Souvenir” won the award for Best Short Subject.
Juried awards handed out at the ceremony included the June Foray Award to Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, the Ub Iwerks Award to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, the Special Achievement Award to the documentary “Howard” and Winsor McCay Awards to Willie Ito, Sue Nichols and Bruce Smith.
The ceremony took place virtually.
The winners:
Best Feature: “Soul” (Pixar Animation Studios)
Best Indie Feature: “Wolfwalkers” (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS)
Best Special Production: “The Snail and the Whale” (Magic Light Pictures)
Best Short Subject: “Souvenir Souvenir” (Blast Production)
Best Sponsored: “There’s a Monster in my Kitchen” (Cartoon Saloon, Mother)
Best TV/Media – Preschool: “The Adventures of Paddington,” episode: “Paddington Digs a Tunnel to Peru” (Blue-Zoo Animation Studio and Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
Best TV/Media – Children: “Hilda.” episode: “Chapter 9: The Deerfox” (Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks)
Best TV/Media – General Audience: “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal,” episode: “Coven Of The Damned” (Cartoon Network Studios)
Best Student Film: “La Bestia” (School: Gobelins, l ‘école de l ‘image; Student directors: Marlijn Van Nuenen, Ram Tamez, Alfredo Gerard Kuttikatt)
Best FX for TV/Media: “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous,” episode: “Welcome to Jurassic World,” Emad Khalili, Ivan Wang, Chris Wombold, Kyle Goertz, Kathy D. Tran (Production Company: DreamWorks Animation; FX Production Company: Dreamworks Animation and CGCG Inc.)
Best FX for Feature: “Soul,” Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller (Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios; FX Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios)
Best Character Animation – TV/Media: “Hilda,” David Laliberté (Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks)
Best Character Animation – Feature: “Soul,” Michal Makarewicz (Pixar Animation Studios)
Best Character Animation – Live Action: “The Mandalorian,” Nathan Fitzgerald, Leo Ito, Chris Rogers, Eung Ho Lo, Emily Luk (Production Company: Lucasfilm; FX Production Company: Image Engine)
Best Character Animation – Video Game: “Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales,” Brian Wyser, Michael Yosh, Danny Garnett, David Hancock (Insomniac Games)
Best Character Design – TV/Media: “Amphibia,” episode: “The Shut-In!,” Joe Sparrow (Disney TV Animation)
Best Character Design – Feature: “Wolfwalkers,” Federico Pirovano (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS)
Best Direction – TV/Media: “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal,” episode: “Plague Of Madness,” Genndy Tartakovsky (Cartoon Network Studios)
Best Direction – Feature: “Wolfwalkers,” Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS)
Best Music – TV/Media: “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” episode: “Victory and Death,” Kevin Kiner (Lucasfilm Animation)
Best Music – Feature: “Soul,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste (Pixar Animation Studios)
Best Production Design – TV/Media: “Shooom’s Odyssey,” Julien Bisaro (Picolo Pictures)
Best Production Design – Feature: “Wolfwalkers,” María Pareja, Ross Stewart, Tomm Moore (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS)
Best Storyboarding – TV/Media: “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” episode: “Big League Beast / Firehouse Frenzy,” Andrew Dickman (Warner Bros. Animation)
Best Storyboarding – Feature: “Soul,” Trevor Jiminez (Pixar Animation Studios)
Best Voice Acting – TV/Media: “Tales of Arcadia: Wizards,” episode: “Our Final Act,” David Bradley (Merlin) (DreamWorks Animation)
Best Voice Acting – Feature: “Wolfwalkers,” Eva Whittaker (Mebh Og MacTie) (Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/GKIDS)
Best Writing – TV/Media: “Big Mouth,” episode: “The New Me,” Andrew Goldberg, Patti Harrison (Netflix)
Best Writing – Feature: “Soul,” Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers (Pixar Animation Studios)
Best Editorial – TV/Media: “Hilda,” episode: “Chapter 9: The Deerfox,” John McKinnon
(Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks)
Best Editorial – Feature: “Soul,” Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk (Pixar Animation Studios)
