‘Soul’ and ‘Wolfwalkers’ Sweep the 48th Annie Awards

ASIFA-Hollywood virtually revealed the winners of the 48th Annie Awards last Friday, which was presented virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pixar’s Soul and Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers came out as the dominant feature winners. Awards were also given to a diverse range of television/streaming series, with Netflix’s Hilda earning the most.

Out of the total number of wins, Soul edged out with the most amount with seven out its ten nominations. This included the grand prize of Best Feature in which it bet out The Croods: A New Age, Trolls World Tour, The Willoughbys, and Pixar’s other nominated film Onward. The six individual feature achievements Soul earned were for Best FX (Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, and Kylie Wijsmuller), Best Character Animation (Michal Makarewicz), Best Music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste), Best Storyboarding (Trevor Jimenez), Best Writing (Pete Docter, Mike Jones, and Kemp Powers), and Best Editorial (Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones and Amera Rizk).

As for the indie underdog of the ceremony, Wolfwalkers five of its ten nominations, with its four individual achievements being awarded for Best Character Design (Federico Pirovano), Best Direction (Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart), Best Production Design (María Pareja, Ross Stewart, and Tomm Moore), and Best Voice Acting (Eva Whittaker as Mebh). Finally, Cartoon Saloon was crowned with the Best Indie Feature for Wolfwalkers, after completing alongside A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Calamity Jane, On-Gaku: Our Sound, and Ride Your Wave.

Also worth noting about Cartoon Saloon is that the Irish animation studio won an additional award with Best Sponsored Production. This was for their animated Greenpeace video There’s a Monster in my Kitchen, which raises awareness of the meat industry’s reliance on destructive deforestation.

When it comes to the TV/Media portion, Netflix’s Hilda continued its winning streak by gaining three awards, the same amount the show got two years prior. Hilda‘s top prize was its second win for Best TV/Media – Children, along with two individual achievement awards for Best Character Animation (David Laliberté) and Best Editorial (John McKinnon). The other animated series to gain more than one award was Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, in which it won Best TV/Media – General Audience and Best Direction in TV/Media awarded to Tartakovsky himself.

Two of DreamWorks Animation’s series were given a TV/Media individual achievement win each, which were Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous for Best FX (Emad Khalili and Ivan Wang), and Wizards: Tales of Arcadia (David Bradley as Merlin). Other shows/media that got one win include Nickelodeon/Blue-Zoo’s The Adventures of Paddington for Best TV/Media – Preschool, Disney’s Amphibia for Best Character Design (Joe Sparrow), Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars for Best Music (Kevin Kiner), Picolo Pictures’ Shooom’s Odyssey for Best Production Design (Julien Bisaro), Looney Tunes Cartoons for Best Storyboarding (Andrew Dickman), and Netflix’s Big Mouth for Best Writing (Andrew Goldberg and Patti Harrison).

Best Special Production was awarded to Magic Light and Triggerfish’s animated TV special The Snail and the Whale. This is the second win of the award for the two studios, with the first being 2017’s Revolting Rhymes.

With the Juried Awards, the three individuals who were honoured with the Winsor McCay Award were layout artist Willie Ito (The Flintstones, Wacky Races), late-visual development artist Sue Nichols (The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and hand-drawn animator Bruce W. Smith (The Proud Family, Hair Love). The others were the June Foray Award for colour artist and Tonko House co-founder Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (Robots, The Dam Keeper), the Ub Iwerks Award for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and Special Achievement Award for Don Hahn’s documentary on songwriter Howard Ashman, Howard.

All the winners for the 48th Annie Awards (via Deadline) are listed below, and presented in the live-streamed event embedded above:

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 Effects for TV/Media

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
Episode: “Welcome to Jurassic World”
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
FX Production Company: Dreamworks Animation and CGCG Inc.
Emad Khalili, Ivan Wang, Chris Wombold, Kyle Goertz, Kathy D. Tran

Best Effects for Feature

Soul
Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios
FX Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios
Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller

Best Character Animation – TV/Media

Hilda
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
David Laliberté

Best Character Animation – Feature

Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Michal Makarewicz

Best Character Animation – Live Action

The Mandalorian
Production Company: Lucasfilm
FX Production Company: Image Engine
Nathan Fitzgerald, Leo Ito, Chris Rogers, Eung Ho Lo, Emily Luk

Best Character Animation – Video Game

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Insomniac Games
Brian Wyser, Michael Yosh, Danny Garnett, David Hancock

Best Character Design – TV/Media

Amphibia
Episode: “The Shut-In!”
Disney TV Animation
Joe Sparrow

Best Character Design – Feature

Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/Gkids
Federico Pirovano

Best Direction – TV/Media

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Episode: “Plague Of Madness“
Cartoon Network Studios
Genndy Tartakovsky

Best Direction – Feature

Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/Gkids
Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart

Best Music – TV/Media

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Episode: “Victory and Death”
Lucasfilm Animation
Kevin Kiner

Best Music – Feature

Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste

Best Production Design – TV/Media

Shooom’s Odyssey
Picolo Pictures
Julien Bisaro

Best Production Design – Feature

Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/Gkids
María Pareja, Ross Stewart, Tomm Moore

Best Storyboarding – TV/Media

Looney Tunes Cartoons
Episode: “Big League Beast” / “Firehouse Frenzy”
Warner Bros. Animation
Andrew Dickman

Best Storyboarding – Feature

Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Trevor Jimenez

Best Voice Acting – TV/Media

Tales of Arcadia: Wizards
Episode: “Our Final Act”
DreamWorks Animation
David Bradley (Merlin)

Best Voice Acting – Feature

Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine Productions for Apple/Gkids
Eva Whittaker (Mebh Óg MacTíre)

Best Writing – TV/Media

Big Mouth
Episode: “The New Me”
Netflix
Andrew Goldberg, Patti Harrison

Best Writing – Feature

Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers

Best Editorial – TV/Media

Hilda
Episode: “Chapter 9: The Deerfox”
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
John McKinnon

Best Editorial – Feature

Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk

Juried Awards

• Winsor McCay Award
  Willie Ito, Sue Nichols (posthumously), Bruce Smith
• June Foray Award
  Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi
• Ub Iwerks Award
  Epic Games for its Unreal Engine
• Special Achievement Award
  Howard (Stone Circle Pictures)

A big congratulations to all of this year’s Annie winners for earning their massive honour!