The 48th Annual Annie Awards, held by ASIFA-Hollyood and partially sponsored by the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) to honor the best in animation for 2020, were announced via a virtual ceremony on Friday, April 16, beginning at 6pm PST.
Disney-Pixar‘s Soul and Cartoon Saloon/Apple Original Films/GKIDS‘ Wolfwalkers led the nominations with ten apiece, but the Annie winners were handed out after almost two weeks of Soul winning a number of other technical guild and society awards, including winning five VES Awards from the Visual Effects Society. The same night, it also won the Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Animation at the Motion Picture Sound Editors‘ 68th Annual Golden Reel Awards.
Things ended up working out well for both Soul and Wolfwalkers, as they were nominated in different categories so that Soul would win Best Feature while Wolfwalkers won Best Indie Feature after going back and forth for most of the night.
Soul ended up scoring one more Annie Award, six total to Wolfwalkers‘ five, but the categories were so well split up with the latter getting Best Direction and Voice Acting, but Soul getting Best Writing, Best Editorial, Best Music and two more. (Other feature animated movies in the mix included another Pixar movie, Onward, and two from DreamWorks Animation: The Croods: A New Age and Trolls World Tour, but all three were shut-out in every feature category.
Otherwise, the TV categories were fairly spread out with the Netflix children’s series, Hilda, winning a few Annie Awards, as did Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, which won Best TV/Media for General Audiences as well as Tartakovsky for his direction.
You can read the full list of winners in all 31 categories below:
BEST FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST INDIE FEATURE
Wolfwalkers
Cartoon Saloon/Melusine/Apple Original Films/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
Silvergate Media for Netflix
BEST TV/MEDIA – GENERAL AUDIENCE
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Episode: Coven Of The Damned
Cartoon Network Studios
BEST STUDENT FILM
La Bestia
Student director: Marlijn Van Nuenen, Ram Tamez, Alfredo Gerard Kuttikatt
School: Gobelins, l’école de l’image
BEST FX FOR TV/MEDIA
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
Episode: Welcome to Jurassic World
DreamWorks Animation
Emad Khalili, Ivan Wang
BEST FX FOR FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV/MEDIA
Hilda
Silvergate Media for Netflix
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/Apple Original Films/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/Apple Original Films/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/Apple Original Films/GKIDS
María Pareja, Ross Stewart, Tomm Moore
BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA
Looney Tunes Cartoons
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/Apple Original Films/GKIDS
Eva Whittaker (Mebh Óg MacTíre)
BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA
Big Mouth
Episode: The New Me
Netflix
Andrew Goldberg, Patti Harrison, Andrew Goldberg
BEST WRITING – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers
BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA
Hilda
Episode: Chapter 9: The Deerfox
Silvergate Media for Netflix
John McKinnon
BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE
Soul
Pixar Animation Studios
Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk
