ASIFA-Hollywood has announced nominations for the 49th Annual Annie Awards, which recognize excellence in the field of animation in cinema and television.
Among the nominees are:
Best Feature
Encanto
Luca
Raya and the Last Dragon
Sing 2
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Best Student Film
A Film About A Pudding
HOPE
I Am A Pebble
Night of the Living Dread
Slouch
Best FX – TV/Media
Arcane
Castlevania
Maya and the Three
Shaun The Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Best FX – Feature
Belle
Encanto
Raya and the Last Dragon
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Vivo
For a complete list of nominations, visit www.annieawards.org/nominations.
In addition to the 36 award categories, the Annies will include juried awards honoring achievement in animation. These will be presented to the following:
The Winsor McCay Award in recognition of lifetime or career contributions — Ruben Aquino, Disney animator; Lillian Schwartz, computer animation pioneer; and Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli producer.
The June Foray Award for charitable contributions to the animation industry — Renzo & Sayoko Kinoshita, founders of the Hiroshima International Animation Festival.
The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement —the Python Foundation for its open-source Python programming language.
The Special Achievement Award outside of the existing award categories — Glen Vilppu, artist and author for his work in teaching and training animation professionals.
The Certificate of Merit for service to the art and industry — Evan Vernon.
This year's ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, February 26, 2022, at UCLA's Royce Hall. While last year it was held virtually, this year it is planned to be held live.