Sony Pictures Animation Takes Home 8 Annie Awards™ Saturday Night During The 49th Virtual Ceremony

LOS ANGELES, March 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Pictures Animation was a big winner Saturday evening during the 49^th Virtual Annie Awards™. The Mitchells vs The Machines received eight Anniesincluding Best Feature, Best FX (Christopher Logan, Man-Louk Chin, Devdatta Nerurkar, Pav Grochola, Filippo Maccari), Character Design (Lindsey Olivares), Direction (Mike Rianda, Jeff Rowe), Production Design (Lindsey Olivares, Toby Wilson, Dave Bleich), Voice Acting (Abbi Jacobson as the voice of Katie Mitchell), Writing (Mike Rianda, Jeff Rowe) and Editorial (Greg Levitan, Collin Wightman, T.J.Young, Tony Ferdinand, Bret Allen).

Arcane (A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix) garnered nine Annies for Best TV/Media – General Audience, Best FX (Guillaume Degroote, Aurélien Ressencourt, Martin Touzé, Frédéric Macé, Jérôme Dupré) Character Animation (Léa Chervet), Character Design (Evan Monteiro), Direction (Pascal Charue, Arnaud Delord, Barthelemy Maunoury) Production Design (Julien Georgel, Aymeric Kevin, Arnaud Baudry), Storyboarding (Simon Andriveau), Voice Acting (Ella Purnell as the voice of Jinx), and Writing (Christian Linke, Alex Yee).  

Best Independent Featurewent to Flee (NEON, Final Cut For Real, Sun Creature, Vivement Lundi !, MostFilm, Mer Film, VICE, Left HandFilms, Participant); Namoo (Baobab Studios) won Best Animated Special Production, and Best Animated Short Subject – Bestia (Trebol 3 Producciones, MALEZA Estudio). Encanto (Walt Disney Animation Studios) took home three Annies for Music (Score: Germaine Franco, Lin-Manuel Miranda); Storyboarding (Jason Hand); and Character Animation (Dave Hardin).

Annies also went to Best Sponsored Production – A Future Begins (Nexus Studios) and Best Animated TV/Media Production for Children – Maya and the Three (A Netflix Series); Best Animated TV/Media Production for Preschool Children – Ada Twist, Scientist (Laughing Wild, Higher Ground Productions, Wonder Worldwide, Netflix); and Character Animation in a Live Action Production – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Karl Rapley, Sebastian Trujillo, Richard John Moore, Merlin Bela Wassilij Maertz, Pascal Raimbault) (Marvel Entertainment, Weta Digital). A complete list of all of the winners can be viewed here: www.annieawards.org.

“Last year’s virtual ceremony gave us a road map of what it took to do something of this magnitude and carry it off, but this year the challenge was different, perhaps more about dealing with the uncertainty and knowledge that things could change at any moment…which they often have!” remarked Frank Gladstone, ASIFA-Hollywood’s executive director. “But the fact is, our industry remains optimistic, healthy and resilient. So, as we have done for nearly half a century, we celebrate what we have accomplished this year and also celebrate that the Animation Community, facing whatever an uncertain and precarious world has in store, endures.” 

The evening’s presenters included Tom Kenny, Emma Berman and Jack Dylan Grazer, Diane Warren, Charlie Saxton and Guillermo Del Toro, Young Dylan, Jessie T. Usher, Blythe Danner, Pierre Perffiel and Lilly Singh, Mamoru Hosoda, Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, and John Leguizamo.

The Winsor McCay Award for career contributions to the art of animation were presented to three recipients – Ruben Aquino, legendary Disney animator; Lillian Schwartz, computer animation pioneer; and Toshio Suzuki, prolific Studio Ghibli producer. The June Foray Award for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation will be awarded to Renzo & Sayoko Kinoshita, influential animation filmmakers and founders of the Hiroshima International Animation Festival.

The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement that has made a significant impact on the art and industry of animation was presented to Python Foundation, promoting, protecting and advancing the open-source Python programming language, and facilitating the growth of the diverse Python community. The Special Achievement Award recognizing the unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation was presented to Glen Vilppu, artist and author internationally known for teaching and training animation professionals. The Certificate of Merit for service to the art and industry was presented to Evan Vernon.      

Many thanks for the generous support from this year’s sponsors and advertisers: Platinum Level – Cartoon Network Studios/Warner Bros. Animation, DreamWorks Animation, LA Times, Netflix, Variety and Walt Disney Animation Studios/Pixar Animation Studios; Gold Level – Disney TV Animation, Illumination Entertainment and Riot Games; Silver Level – The Animation Guild LATSE Local 839, Pixar Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Animation and Walt Disney Animation Studios; Bronze Level – Epic Games/Unreal Engine, GKIDS, Nickelodeon and Skydance Animation; and Education/Nonprofit Level – Sheridan College.

The Annie Awards™ honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 36 categories from best feature, best feature – independent, production design, character animation, and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, music, editing and voice acting, and have often been a predictor of the annual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The ceremony was streamed this year courtesy of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Video highlights of the ceremony will be uploaded to the Annies website in the next few days.     

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