Annie Award
Encyclopedia
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California
branch of the International Animated Film Association
, ASIFA-Hollywood
since 1972. Originally designed to celebrate lifetime or career contributions to animation in the fields of producing, directing, animation, design
, writing
, voice acting
, sound and sound effects, etc., in 1992 it began to honor animation as a whole, and created the category of Best Animated Feature.
Memberships in the ASIFA-Hollywood consist of three main categories: General Member, Patron and Student Member. Joining ASIFA-Hollywood is open to professionals, students and fans of animation, for a membership fee. All members of ASIFA-Hollywood may vote for the winners.
The 38th Annie Awards
ceremony took place on February 5, 2011, on the campus of UCLA
.
cartoons, a Pixar
short, and two independent films: Picnic Pictures' The Chestnut Tree
, and Don Hertzfeldt
's short, Everything Will Be OK
. Official rules for the Annie Awards state that voting members must view all nominated achievements in their entirety before casting their ballot for a winner. Members are directed to view the nominated films on a secure website.
When the online ballot launched on January 15, the two independent films were not included for voters to judge. ASIFA acknowledged this error over a week later, at which point all the votes were reportedly thrown out and the balloting system was reset. Voters were instructed to return and re-vote the category. "The Chestnut Tree" was now uploaded properly to the ballot, however Everything Will Be OK
was again not included: this time, the online ballot only played a portion of this film's 17-minute running time to voters, abruptly cutting out in the middle of a scene. ASIFA again took several days to repair the ballot, but this time allowed voting to continue.
By the time the ballot officially closed on February 1, Everything Will Be OK
was only available to voters for less than 24 hours of the entire 18-day voting period.
Though ASIFA apologized to Don Hertzfeldt
, they took no further action and carried on with the event, awarding the prize to the Pixar
short, Your Friend the Rat
.
swept the Annie Awards in an overwhelming defeat against the eventual Oscar-winner WALL-E
, which was shut out in every category. In an Oscar prediction article, New York Times writer David Carr noted, "Oscar watchers were stunned when Kung Fu Panda took all the awards from the International Animated Film Society. That was an inside job, full of backstage politics you don’t want to know about." Animator Bill Plympton
(himself a recipient of ASIFA's lifetime achievement award), also criticized the organization's balloting practices, writing in his blog,
"I think that Jeffrey Katzenberg
, who knows a good publicity opportunity when he sees it, bought ASIFA-Hollywood memberships for his entire studio, and then told them to vote the party line... The unfortunate reality is that it feels like the elections were rigged - they were bought! What a travesty."
Due to Disney's complaints, ASIFA-Hollywood changed the rules on voting for individual achievement categories, making those categories only available to professionals. ASIFA-Hollywood head Antran Manoogian said that this was just a first step to a future move where Annie voters would have to be approved by a committee and non-professionals would now be ineligible to vote.
That was not enough for Disney president Ed Catmull, who had called for an advisory committee of toon execs representing each studio to recommend rule changes to the ASIFA board. Catmull said, "We believe there is an issue with the way the Annies are judged, and have been seeking a mutually agreeable solution with the board. Although some initial steps have been taken, the board informed us that no further changes would be made to address our concerns."
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
branch of the International Animated Film Association
International Animated Film Association
The International Animated Film Association or ASIFA is an international non-profit organization founded in 1960 in Annecy, France by the best known animation artists of the time such as the Canadian animator, Norman McLaren...
, ASIFA-Hollywood
ASIFA-Hollywood
ASIFA-Hollywood, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles, California, USA, which is a branch member of the "Association Internationale du Film d'Animation" or "ASIFA"...
since 1972. Originally designed to celebrate lifetime or career contributions to animation in the fields of producing, directing, animation, design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, voice acting
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
, sound and sound effects, etc., in 1992 it began to honor animation as a whole, and created the category of Best Animated Feature.
Memberships in the ASIFA-Hollywood consist of three main categories: General Member, Patron and Student Member. Joining ASIFA-Hollywood is open to professionals, students and fans of animation, for a membership fee. All members of ASIFA-Hollywood may vote for the winners.
The 38th Annie Awards
38th Annie Awards
The 38th Annual Annie Awards honoring the best in animation of 2010 was held February 5, 2011 at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.-Best Animated Feature :How to Train Your Dragon – DreamWorks Animation...
ceremony took place on February 5, 2011, on the campus of UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
.
Production
- Best Animated FeatureAnnie Award for Best Animated FeatureThe Annie Award for Best Animated Feature is an Annie Award, awarded annually to the best animated feature film and introduced in 1992. In 1998 the award was renamed Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature, only to be reverted back to its original title again in 2001...
- Best Animated Home Entertainment ProductionAnnie Award for Best Animated Home Entertainment ProductionThe Annie Award for Best Animated Home Entertainment Production is awarded annually by ASIFA-Hollywood, a non-profit organization that honors contributions to animation, to the best animated direct-to-video film of the year. It is one of the Annie Awards, which honor contributions to animation,...
- Best Animated Short SubjectAnnie Award for Best Animated Short SubjectThe Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject is an Annie Award given annually to the best animated short film, except in 1999 and 2002. It was introduced in 1995...
- Best Animated Television Commercial
- Best Animated Television ProductionAnnie Award for Best Animated Television ProductionThe Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production is an Annie Award, awarded annually to the best animated television show. In 1998 the award was split into two categories, Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Daytime Television Program and Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime...
- Best Animated Video GameAnnie Award for Best Animated Video GameThe Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game is awarded annually by ASIFA-Hollywood, a non-profit organization that honors contributions to animation, to the best animated video game of the year. It is one of the Annie Awards, which are given to the best contributions to animation, including...
Individual achievement
- Animated Effects
- Character Animation in a Feature Production
- Character Animation in a Television Production
- Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
- Character Design in an Animated Television Production
- Directing in an Animated Feature Production
- Directing in an Animated Television Production
- Music in an Animated Feature Production
- Music in an Animated Television Production
- Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
- Production Design in an Animated Television Production
- Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
- Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production
- Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
- Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production
- Writing in an Animated Feature Production
- Writing in an Animated Television Production
Juried awards
- June ForayJune ForayJune Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters...
Award - Ub IwerksUb IwerksUb Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
Award - Winsor McCay AwardWinsor McCay AwardThe Winsor McCay Award is given to individuals in recognition of lifetime or career contributions in animation. The award is presented at the annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood...
- Special Achievement in Animation
- Certificates of Merit
2008
In 2008, the Annie Award nominees for "Best Short Subject" included two Walt DisneyWalt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
cartoons, a Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
short, and two independent films: Picnic Pictures' The Chestnut Tree
The Chestnut Tree
The Chestnut Tree is a short film which made its debut at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and then showed in the Austin Film Festival and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. It is a 2-D hand-drawn short film about a little girl and her mother that revisit memories under the chestnut tree...
, and Don Hertzfeldt
Don Hertzfeldt
Don Hertzfeldt is the creator of many short animated films, including the Academy-Award nominated Rejected and Everything Will Be OK. His animated films have received over 150 awards and have been presented around the world. Before the age of thirty, his films were already the subject of several...
's short, Everything Will Be OK
Everything Will Be OK
Everything Will Be OK is a 2006 animated short film by Don Hertzfeldt. It is the first chapter of a planned three-part story about Bill, the protagonist. Hertzfeldt released the second film in the series, titled I am so proud of you, in 2008....
. Official rules for the Annie Awards state that voting members must view all nominated achievements in their entirety before casting their ballot for a winner. Members are directed to view the nominated films on a secure website.
When the online ballot launched on January 15, the two independent films were not included for voters to judge. ASIFA acknowledged this error over a week later, at which point all the votes were reportedly thrown out and the balloting system was reset. Voters were instructed to return and re-vote the category. "The Chestnut Tree" was now uploaded properly to the ballot, however Everything Will Be OK
Everything Will Be OK
Everything Will Be OK is a 2006 animated short film by Don Hertzfeldt. It is the first chapter of a planned three-part story about Bill, the protagonist. Hertzfeldt released the second film in the series, titled I am so proud of you, in 2008....
was again not included: this time, the online ballot only played a portion of this film's 17-minute running time to voters, abruptly cutting out in the middle of a scene. ASIFA again took several days to repair the ballot, but this time allowed voting to continue.
By the time the ballot officially closed on February 1, Everything Will Be OK
Everything Will Be OK
Everything Will Be OK is a 2006 animated short film by Don Hertzfeldt. It is the first chapter of a planned three-part story about Bill, the protagonist. Hertzfeldt released the second film in the series, titled I am so proud of you, in 2008....
was only available to voters for less than 24 hours of the entire 18-day voting period.
Though ASIFA apologized to Don Hertzfeldt
Don Hertzfeldt
Don Hertzfeldt is the creator of many short animated films, including the Academy-Award nominated Rejected and Everything Will Be OK. His animated films have received over 150 awards and have been presented around the world. Before the age of thirty, his films were already the subject of several...
, they took no further action and carried on with the event, awarding the prize to the Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
short, Your Friend the Rat
Your Friend the Rat
Your Friend the Rat is Pixar's first short film to feature traditional animation. At 11 minutes, it is also the longest Pixar short to date. Along with 2D animation, the short also includes stop-motion animation, computer generated imagery and live action, much like the children's television...
.
2009
In 2009, DreamWorks' Kung Fu PandaKung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
swept the Annie Awards in an overwhelming defeat against the eventual Oscar-winner WALL-E
WALL-E
WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future...
, which was shut out in every category. In an Oscar prediction article, New York Times writer David Carr noted, "Oscar watchers were stunned when Kung Fu Panda took all the awards from the International Animated Film Society. That was an inside job, full of backstage politics you don’t want to know about." Animator Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton
William "Bill" Calvin Plympton is an American animator, former cartoonist, director, screenwriter and producer best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face. and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog and Horn Dog.- Biography :Bill Plympton was born in...
(himself a recipient of ASIFA's lifetime achievement award), also criticized the organization's balloting practices, writing in his blog,
"I think that Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
, who knows a good publicity opportunity when he sees it, bought ASIFA-Hollywood memberships for his entire studio, and then told them to vote the party line... The unfortunate reality is that it feels like the elections were rigged - they were bought! What a travesty."
2010
In 2010, Walt Disney Studios decided to cease submissions and support for ASIFA-Hollywood's Annie Awards. At issue was the fact that anyone could buy a membership (and voting ballot) to ASIFA, whereas members of the Motion Picture Academy and other awards-giving bodies must be voted in only by their peers. Disney also believed the scales are tilted in favor of DreamWorks Animation, who gives each new employee a free membership to ASIFA-Hollywood.Due to Disney's complaints, ASIFA-Hollywood changed the rules on voting for individual achievement categories, making those categories only available to professionals. ASIFA-Hollywood head Antran Manoogian said that this was just a first step to a future move where Annie voters would have to be approved by a committee and non-professionals would now be ineligible to vote.
That was not enough for Disney president Ed Catmull, who had called for an advisory committee of toon execs representing each studio to recommend rule changes to the ASIFA board. Catmull said, "We believe there is an issue with the way the Annies are judged, and have been seeking a mutually agreeable solution with the board. Although some initial steps have been taken, the board informed us that no further changes would be made to address our concerns."
Notable nominations
- Animated features that earned the most nominations:
- 16: The IncrediblesThe IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
(2004) - 16: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-RabbitWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-RabbitWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...
(2005) - 16: Kung Fu PandaKung Fu PandaKung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
(2008) - 16: How To Train Your DragonHow to Train Your Dragon (film)How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 3D computer-animated action fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation loosely based on the 2003 book of the same name. The film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher...
(2010) - 13: RatatouilleRatatouille (film)Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the eighth film produced by Pixar, and was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005...
(2007) - 12: Finding NemoFinding NemoFinding Nemo is a 2003 American comi-drama animated film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin who, along with a regal tang called Dory , searches for his abducted son Nemo...
(2003) - 10: CoralineCoraline (film)Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
(2009) - 10: Mulan (1998)