ASIFA-Hollywood announced all the nominations for its upcoming 45th Annie Awards, the annual award ceremony dedicated to honour the best accomplishments in the field of animation. The event is scheduled for Saturday, February 3, 2018, at the University of California’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, where the winners will be revealed.
Pixar’s latest hit Coco managed to earn the most nominations of that year with a total of 13. Among those was “Best Animated Feature”, nominated alongside Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Cars 3 (another Pixar film), Despicable Me 3, and The Boss Baby. Coco also gained individual achievement nominations in directing, music, writing, voice acting, character design, production design, character animation, and storyboarding.
On the television side, DreamWorks’s Trollhunters and Disney Television Animation’s Mickey Mouse were the top-nominated shows by getting six nominations each. Close behind was Adult Swim’s fifth season of Samurai Jack, which got four nominations.
As a special honour, a certificate of merit will be awarded David Nimitz for his caretaking of the late June Foray, who was the founding member of ASIFA-Hollywood and creator of the Annie Awards. Foray passed away in July earlier this year at the age of 99.
Below is the complete list of nominees (via Variety):
Production Categories
Best Animated Feature
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
DreamWorks Animation - Cars 3
Pixar Animation Studios - Coco
Pixar Animation Studios - Despicable Me 3
Illumination - The Boss Baby
DreamWorks Animation
Best Animated Feature – Independent
- In This Corner of the World
Taro Maki, GENCO, Inc. and Masao Maruyama, MAPPA Co., Ltd - Loving Vincent
BreakThru Films, Production Company Trademark Films, Co-Production Company - Napping Princess
Nippon TV - The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
Folivari/Panique!/Studiocanal - The Breadwinner
Cartoon Saloon/Aircraft Pictures/Melusine Productions
Best Animated Special Production
- Imaginary Friend Society ‘Feeling Sad’
Hornet - Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
Walt Disney Animation Studios - Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems
Tonko House, Inc. - Revolting Rhymes
Magic Light Pictures - Tangled Before Ever After
Walt Disney Television Animation
Best Animated Short Subject
- Dear Basketball
Glen Keane Productions, Kobe Studios, Believe Entertainment Group - Hedgehog’s Home
National Film Board of Canada, Bonobostudio - Negative Space
IKKI Films/Manuel Cam Studio - Scavengers
Titmouse, Inc./Adult Swim - Son of Jaguar
Google Spotlight Stories, Reel FX
Best Animated Television / Broadcast Commercial
- Biscotti. Una storia buona
Hornet - June
Broad Reach Pictures/Chromosphere/Lyft - League of Legends ‘Legends Never Die’
Passion Animation Studios - Please the Cheese
Psyop - Sainsbury’s ‘The Greatest Gift’
Passion Animation Studios
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children
- Mickey and the Roadster Racers / Episode: “Goofy Gas!”
Walt Disney Television Animation - Octonauts / Episode: “Operation Deep Freeze”
Vampire Squid Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media company, in association with Brown Bag Films - Peg + Cat, The Mariachi Problem / Episode: 220B – “The Mariachi Problem”
The Fred Rogers Company/100 Chickens Productions - The Stinky & Dirty Show / Episode: “HaHaHigher” / “The Waiting Game”
Amazon Studios - Through the Woods / Episode: “A Snowy Morning”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, The Fred Rogers Company, PIP Animation Services
Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children
- Buddy Thunderstruck / Episode: “To Protect and Swerve” / “Robo Truck of the Future”
Stoopid Buddy and American Greetings for Netflix - Lost in Oz / Episode: “The Pearl of Pingaree”
Amazon Studios - Niko and the Sword of Light / Episode: “From the Cliffs of Catastrophe to the Pools of Destiny”
Amazon Studios - Tangled: The Series / Episode: “Queen for a Day”
Walt Disney Television Animation - We Bare Bears / Episode: “Panda’s Art”
Cartoon Network Animation Studios
Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production
- Big Mouth / Episode: “Am I Gay?”
Netflix - BoJack Horseman / Episode: “Stupid Piece of Sh*t”
Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix - Rick and Morty / Episode: 303 – “Pickle Rick”
Williams Street Productions - Robot Chicken / Episode: “Freshly Baked: The Robot Chicken Santa Claus Pot Cookie Freakout Special: Special Edition”
Stoopid Buddy Stoodios - Samurai Jack / Episode: “XCIII”
Adult Swim
Best Student Film
- Cradle
Devon Manney - Elsewhere
Junyi Xiao - Good Night, Everybuds!
Director: Benedikt Hummel, Sound Design & Mix: Lena Beck, Music: Andreas Pfeiffer, Producer: Stefan Michel - Once a hero
Xia Li - Poles Apart
Director: Paloma Baeza; Producer: Ser En Low, All Student Crew
Individual Achievement Categories
Animated Effects in an Animated Production
- Avatar Flight of Passage
VFX Supervisor: Thrain Shadbolt Sr.; Richard Baneham; Compositing Supervisor: Sam Cole; CG Supervisor: Pavani Rao Boddapati; Daniele Tosti - Cars 3
Development & Effects Artist: Amit Baadkar; Effects Lead: Greg Gladstone; Stephen Marshall; Tim Speltz; Effects Supervisor: Jon Reisch - Coco
Effects Artist: Shaun Galinak; Jason Johnston; Carl Kaphan; Effects Lead: Dave Hale; Keith Daniel Klohn - Despicable Me 3
Computer Graphics Supervisor: Bruno Chauffard; Frank Baradat; Lighting & Compositing Supervisor: Nicolas Brack; Effects Supervisor: Milo Riccarand - Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
Head of Effects: Christopher Hendryx; Effects Animator: Dan Lund; Mike Navarro; Hiroaki Narita; Steven Chitwood
Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- DreamWorks Trolls Holiday
Character Animator: Kevan Shorey (Character: All Characters) - DreamWorks Trolls Holiday
Lead Animator: Ben Willis (Character: All Characters) - DreamWorks Trolls Holiday
Character Animator: Onur Yeldan (Character: All Characters) - Trollhunters / Episode: 205 – “Homecoming”
Character Animator: Bruno Chiou; Yi-Fan Cho (Character: Blinky, Dictatious, Aaarrrgghh!!); Lead Animator: Kevin Jong; Chun-Jung Chu (Character: Blinky, Dictatious, Aaarrrgghh!!) - Tumble Leaf / Episode: “Rutabagels” / “Okra-Ball”
Character Animator: Michael Granberry (Character: Maple, Fig, Stick and Okra); Joe Heinen (Character: Fig, Gourd, Coco, Maple, Pine, Zucchini, Okra, Grubs, Chicks and Beetle Bus); Rachel Larsen (Character: Coco, Pine, Maple, Fig, Stick and Okra); Hilary Lile (Character: Maple, Fig and Okra); Dan MacKenzie (Character: Pine, Fig, Gourd, Rutabaga, Beetles, Coco, Okra and Maple)
Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Animator: John Chun Chiu Lee (Character: All characters) - Coco
Animator: Allison Rutland (Character: All characters) - The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
Animator: Marco Nguyen (Character: all characters in scene); Directing Animator: Benjamin Renner (Character: all characters in scene); Supervising Animator: Patrick Imbert (Character: all characters in scene) - The Boss Baby
Animation Supervisor: Bryce McGovern (Character: various) - The Boss Baby
Animation Supervisor: Rani Naamani (Character: various)
Character Animation in a Live Action Production
- Game of Thrones / S7 Ep.6 – “Beyond The Wall”
Animation Supervisor: Paul Story; Animation Lead: Todd Labonte; Creatures Lead: Matthew Muntean; Senior Modeller: Cajun Hylton; Texture Artist: Georgy Arevshatov - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Animation Supervisor: Arslan Elver; Lead Animator: Liam Russell; Alvise Avati; Alessandro Cuicci - Kong: Skull Island
Animation Supervisor: Jance Rubinchik; Animation Lead: Adrian Millington; Animator: Alberto Martinez Arce; Kyle Winkelman - Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Senior Facial Modeller: Andrei Coval; Animation Supervisor: Paul Story; Eric Reynolds; Shader TD: Olivier Lesaint; Shader TD: Artur Vill - War for the Planet of the Apes
Animation Supervisor: Daniel Barrett; Sidney Kombo Kintombo; Emile Ghorayeb; Lead Motion Editor: Luisma Lavin Peredo; Lead Facial Modeller: Alessandro Bonora
Character Animation in a Video Game
- Cuphead
Lead Animator: Hanna Abi-Hanna (Characters: The Devil, Grim Matchstick, Beppi The Clown, Werner Werman) - Cuphead
Lead Animator: Tina Nawrocki (Characters: Baroness Von Bon Bon, Hopus Pocus, Pirouletta, Giant, Tipsy Troupe, Lobster, Porkrind, Dragonfly, The Devil – DEATH) - Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Character Animator: Chris Goodall; Jitaik Lim; Kirill Spiridonov (Character: Senua) - Horizon Zero Dawn
Lead Animator: Richard Oud (Character: All mechanical creatures); Kevin Quaid (Character: All humanoids); Character Animator: Niek Neervens; Jonathan Colin (Character: All humanoids); Character Animator: Peer Lemmers (Character: All mechanical creatures) - Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Lead Animator: Almundena Soria; Keith Paciello; Paul Augustus Davies (Character: All Characters);
Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Buddy Thunderstruck / Episode: “Buddy Double” / “Beaver Dam Fast Pizza”
Character Designer: Ryan Wiesbrock; Becky van Cleve; Rob Ronning; Nikki Rice Malki; Felicia Bleu Rose (Character: Buddy Thunderstruck, Darnell, Moneybags, Big Tex, Jacko + all other characters) - Danger & Eggs / Episode: “Tube of Pain” / “Broccoli”
Character Design: Mike Owens (Character: Phillip) - Samurai Jack / Episode: “XCVI”
Character Design: Craig Kellman (Character: Various) - Tangled: The Series / Episode: “Tangled Before Ever After”
Co-Executive Producer: Shane Prigmore (Character: Rapunzel, Eugene, Maximus, Cassandra); Character Designer: Bobby Pontillas (Character: King Frederick, Queen Arianna, Landy Caine, Fidella); Character Designer: Taylor Krahenbuhl (Character: Pub Thugs); Character Designer: Mayumi Nose (Character: Pascal) - Trollhunters / Episode: Ep 201 – “Escape from the Darklands”
Character Designer: Jules Rigolle; Alfredo Torres (Character: Goblins, Dictatious, Enrique, Gum Gums, Gunmar, Queen Usurna, Nyarlagroth); Lead Texture Artist: Linda Chen (Character: Goblins, Dictatious, Enrique, Gum Gums, Gunmar, Queen Usurna, Nyarlagroth); Art Director: Rustam Hasanov (Character: Gunmar, Goblins and Gumm Gumms); Color Key Artist: Alfonso Blaas (Character: Enrique, Goblins, Queen Usurna, Nyarlagroth, Gumm Gumms)
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Character Art Director: Daniel Arriaga (Character: All characters); Additional Character Art Direction: Daniela Strijleva (Character: All characters); Character Design/Sculptor: Greg Dykstra (Character: All characters); Character Modeller: Alonso Martinez (Character: All characters); Character Designer: Zaruhi Galstyan (Character: All characters) - Despicable Me 3
Character Designer: Eric Guillon (Character: All, Balthazar Bratt, Dru, Gru, Minions, Valerie Da Vinci, Gru’s Mom, Vincenzo, Freedonians) - Smurfs: The Lost Village
Character Designer: Patrick Mate (Character: Multiple Characters) - The Boss Baby
Character Designer: Joe Moshier (Character: Various) - The Breadwinner
Character Design: Reza Riahi (Character: Story World Characters/Rough Design); Character Design: Louise Bagnall (Character: Story World Characters/Clean Character Design); Concept Artist/Character Texture Artist: Alice Dieudonné (Character: Story World Characters/Texture Design)
Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Disney Mickey Mouse / Episode: “The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!”
Director: Dave Wasson; Director: Eddie Trigueros; Director: Alonso Ramirez-Ramos - Dragons: Race to the Edge / Episode: “Sandbusted”
Director: T.J. Sullivan - Tangled: The Series / Episode: “Tangled Before Ever After”
Director: Tom Caulfield; Director: Stephen Sandoval - The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVIII”
Director: Timothy Bailey - Trollhunters / Episode: Ep 211 – “Unbecoming”
Director: Andrew Schmidt
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Director: Lee Unkrich Pixar; Co-Director: Adrian Molina - The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
Co-Director: Benjamin Renner; Co-Director: Patrick Imbert - The Boss Baby
Director: Tom McGrath - The Breadwinner
Director: Nora Twomey - The Lego Batman Movie
Director: Chris McKay
Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Disney Mickey Mouse / Episode: “The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!”
Composer: Christopher Willis - Home Adventures With Tip & Oh / Episode: Ep 030A – “Chercophonie”
Composer: Alex Geringas - Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures / Episode: “Trouble on Tibalt”
Composer: Michael Kramer - The Powerpuff Girls / Episode: “Home, Sweet Homesick”
Composer: Mike Reagan, Lyricist: Bob Boyle - Tumble Leaf / Episode: “The Nature Of Friendship” / “The Ship Shop”
Composer/Lyricist: Lisbeth Scott
Music in an Animated Feature Production
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Composer: Theodor Shapiro - Coco
Composer: Michael Giacchino; Composer/Lyricist: Kristin Anderson-Lopez; Composer/Lyricist: Robert Lopez; Composer: Germaine Franco; Lyricist: Adrian Molina - Loving Vincent
Composer: Clint Mansell - Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
Composer/Lyricist: Elyssa Samsel; Kate Anderson; Composer: Christophe Beck - The Breadwinner
Composer: Mychael Danna; Jeff Danna
Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Big Hero 6: The Series / Episode: “Baymax Returns”
Production Design: Ben Plouffe; Mark Taihei; Chris Whittier; Sylvia Filcak; Amy Chen - Disney Mickey Mouse / Episode: “The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!”
Production Design: Jenny Gase-Baker; Justin Martin - June
Production Design: Jasmin Lai; Théo Guignard; Arthur Chaumay; Tiffany Ford; Sylvia Liu - Samurai Jack / Episode: “XCIII”
Production Design: Scott Wills - The Loud House / Episode: “Tricked!”
Production Design: Amanda Rynda; Larry Murphy; Edgar Duncan; Hallie Wilson; Jared Morgan
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Production Design: Harley Jessup; Danielle Feinberg; Bryn Imagire; Nathaniel McLaughlin; Ernesto Nemesio; Tom Cardone; Arden Chan - Ferdinand
Production Design: Andrew Hickson; Mike Lee; Jason Sadler - Leap! / Ballerina
Production Design: Florent Masurel; Pierre-Antoine Moelo; Julien Meillard; Jean-Jacques Cournoyer - Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Production Design: Tomotaka Kubo; Tomoya Imai; Satoko Nakamura - The Breadwinner
Production Design: Ciaran Duffy; Julien Regnard; Daby Zainab Faidhi
Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Disney Mickey Mouse / Episode: “Bee Inspired”
Storyboard Artist: Eddie Trigueros - Home for the Holidays / Episode: Ep 900 – “Tip and Oh: Home for the Holidays”
Storyboard Artist: Ben Bury - Niko and the Sword of Light / Episode: “From the Phantom Woods to the Mountains of Misery”
Storyboard Artist: Kim Arndt; Alexandria Kwan - Trollhunters / Episode: 205 – “Hero with a Thousand Faces”
Storyboard Artist: David Woo - Trollhunters / Episode: 213 – “In the Hall of the Gumm-Gumm King”
Storyboard Artist: Hyunjoo Song
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Storyboard Artist: Dean Kelly - Coco
Storyboard Artist: Madeline Sharafian - The Boss Baby
Storyboard Artist: Glenn Harmon - The Breadwinner
Storyboard Artist: Julien Regnard - The Star
Storyboard Artist: Louie del Carmen
Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- BoJack Horseman / Episode: “Time’s Arrow”
Wendie Malick as Beatrice Horseman - Bunsen Is a Beast
Jeremy Rowley as Bunsen - Disney Mickey Mouse / Episode: “The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!”
Chris Diamantopoulos as Mickey Mouse - SpongeBob SquarePants
Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants - The Amazing World of Gumball / Episode: “The Grades”
Nicolas Cantu as Gumball
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Nick Kroll as Professor Poopypants - Coco
Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel - The Breadwinner
Saara Chaudry as Parvana - The Breadwinner
Laara Sadiq as Fattema - The Lego Batman Movie
Zach Galifianakis as Joker
Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Archer / Episode: “Archer Dreamland: Jane Doe”
Writer: Adam Reed - Disney Mickey Mouse / Episode: “Locked in Love”
Writer: Darrick Bachman - Milo Murphy’s Law / Episode: “The Island of the Lost Dakotas”
Writer: Joshua Pruett - Rick and Morty / Episode: 307 – “The Ricklantis Mixup”
Writer: Ryan Ridley; Dan Guterman - Trollhunters / Episode: 201 – “Escape from the Darklands”
Writer: AC Bradley; Kevin Hageman; Dan Hageman; Aaron Waltke; Chad Quandt
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Writer: Adrian Molina; Matthew Aldrich - Loving Vincent
Writer: Dorota Kobiela; Hugh Welchman; Jacek Dehnel - Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Writer: Riko Sakaguchi; Hiromasa Yonebayashi; David Freedman; Lynda Freedman - The Breadwinner
Writer: Anita Doron
Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production
- Bob’s Burgers / Episode: “Bob, Actually”
Mark Seymour; Chuck Smith; Eric Davidson - BoJack Horseman / Episode: “Stupid Piece of Sh*t”
Jose Martinez - Dinotrux / Episode: Ep 053 – “Superchargers”
William Rinaldi; Justin Baker - Pickle and Peanut / Episode: “Bear-I-cade”
John Royer - Samurai Jack / Episode: “XCIII, XCIV, XCIX”
Paul Douglas
Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
- Coco
Steve Bloom; Lee Unkrich; Greg Snyder; Tim Fox - Ferdinand
Harry Hitner; Tim Nordquist - The Breadwinner
Darragh Byrne - The Lego Batman Movie
David Burrows; Matt Villa; John Venzon - The Star
Pamela Ziegenhagen
Juried Awards
Winsor McCay Award
- James Baxter
- Stephen Hillenburg
- Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis
Ub Iwerks Award
- TVPaint
Special Achievement Award
- Cuphead
Studio MDHR
June Foray Award
- Didier Ghez
Certificate of Merit
- David Nimitz
In conclusion, a major congratulations to all talents who are nominated for the 45th Annie Awards!
Edited by: Hannah Wilkes