Annie Awards

History

In 1972, June Foray first conceived the idea of awards for excellence in the field of animation. With the approval of ASIFA-Hollywood president Nick Bosustow, an Annie Award ceremony was organized. The first ceremony was held at the banquet room of Sportsmen's Lodge in Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, Los Angeles, California. Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer were the first to be honored by the first Annie Awards for creating Betty Boop, bringing Popeye, and Olive Oyl to the animated screen, and for inventing the technique of rotoscoping.

Naming "Annie Awards"

According to Foray, her husband Hobart Donavan suggested that the awards be called "Annie", because they are presented for excellence in animation.

Trophy

The first trophy for the Annie Award trophy was presented in the second award ceremony, to Walter Lantz, the founder of Walter Lantz Productions and creator of Woody Woodpecker. Made of wood and plastic, it was shaped like a zoetrope. The next year, Tom Woodward designed the trophy now presented.

Award categories

Current categories

As of 2025, 37 categories are presented including for film and television productions. Production

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Animated Feature – Independent
• Best Animated Special Production
• Best Animated Short Subject
• Best Animated Sponsored Production
• Best General Audience Animated Television Broadcast Production
• Best TV Production for Children
• Best TV Production for Preschool Children
• Best Student Film
• Best TV/Media – Limited Series

Individual achievement in Film

• Outstanding Animated Effects
• Outstanding Character Animation – Animation
• Outstanding Character Animation – Live Action
• Outstanding Character Design
• Outstanding Directing
• Outstanding Editorial
• Outstanding Music
• Outstanding Production Design
• Outstanding Storyboarding
• Outstanding Voice Acting
• Outstanding Writing Individual achievement in Television, Broadcast and Video Game
• Outstanding Animated Effects
• Outstanding Character Animation – TV/Media
• Outstanding Character Animation – Video Game
• Outstanding Character Design
• Outstanding Directing
• Outstanding Editorial
• Outstanding Music
• Outstanding Producing
• Outstanding Production Design
• Outstanding Storyboarding
• Outstanding Voice Acting
• Outstanding Writing

Juried awards

• June Foray Award
• Ub Iwerks Award
• Winsor McCay Award
• Special Achievement in Animation
• Certificates of Merit

Defunct categories

• Best Animated Home Entertainment Production
• Best Virtual Reality Production
• Outstanding Animated Effects – Live Action
• Best Animated Television Production
• Best Animated Video Game

Balloting controversies and criticism

2008 Best Short Subject mixup

In 2008, the Annie Award nominees for Best Short Subject included two Walt Disney cartoons, a Pixar short, and two independent films: Picnic Pictures' The Chestnut Tree, and Don Hertzfeldt's short Everything Will Be OK. Official rules for the Annie Awards state that voting members must view all nominated achievements in their entirety before casting their ballot for a winner. Members are directed to view the nominated films on a secure website.

When the online ballot launched on January 15, the two independent films were not included for voters to judge. ASIFA acknowledged this error over a week later, at which point all the votes were reportedly thrown out and the balloting system was reset. Voters were instructed to return and re-vote the category. "The Chestnut Tree" was now uploaded properly to the ballot; however, Everything Will Be OK was again not included: this time, the online ballot only played a portion of this film's 17-minute running time to voters, abruptly cutting out in the middle of a scene. ASIFA again took several days to repair the ballot, but this time allowed voting to continue.

By the time the ballot officially closed on February 1, Everything Will Be OK was only available to voters for less than 24 hours of the entire 18-day voting period. Even though ASIFA apologized to Hertzfeldt, they took no further action and carried on with the event, awarding the prize to the Pixar short, Your Friend the Rat. (Hertzfeldt would eventually win the award for his 2015 Oscar-nominated short film World of Tomorrow.)

Dreamworks upset and Disney boycott

In 2009, DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda swept the Annie Awards in a surprise upset over Pixar's WALL-E, which won no Annie Awards but did go on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Many felt that the vote had been rigged: DreamWorks at the time gave each of their employees a free membership to ASIFA-Hollywood, which in turn conferred voting rights. (For most film awards, voting rights cannot be bought but must be conferred by one's peers.)

As a result, Walt Disney Studios decided to cease submissions and support for the 2010 Annie Awards from their two animated film divisions, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar. Due to Disney's complaints, ASIFA-Hollywood changed the rules on voting for individual achievement categories, making those categories only available to professionals within those categories. ASIFA-Hollywood head Antran Manoogian also said that Annie voters would in the future have to be approved by a committee and non-professionals would now be ineligible to vote.

That was not enough for Disney president Ed Catmull, who had called for an advisory committee of relevant executives representing each studio to recommend rule changes to the ASIFA board. Catmull said, "We believe there is an issue with the way the Annies are judged, and have been seeking a mutually agreeable solution with the board. Although some initial steps have been taken, the board informed us that no further changes would be made to address our concerns." ASIFA-Hollywood did not agree to this demand.

Disney and Pixar rejoined the Annie Awards in 2011, with no formal announcement. Ironically, earlier that year, the Annie Awards had a near-exact replay of the 2009 results, with DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon sweeping all the major Annie Awards over Pixar's Toy Story 3, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and also received a nomination for Best Picture.

Records

Film

The following nominees (motion pictures and direct-to-video films) received multiple nominations:

The following winners (motion pictures and direct-to-video films) received multiple awards:

TV

The following nominees (TV shows, specials, and special presentations) received multiple wins and nominations:

The following winners (TV shows, specials, and special presentations) received multiple awards:

Other

Films (feature-lengths and shorts)

• First non-English-language film to win Best Animated Feature
  • Spirited Away (2002)
• First stop-motion film to win Best Animated Feature
  • Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
• Most awards won by a feature-length film: 11
  • Coco (2017)
• Most awards won by a short film: 4
  • The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)
• Most awards sweep every nominations with more than 3 by feature-length films: 15 films
  • Coco (2017); with all 11 categories won out of 13 nominations.
  • The Incredibles (2004), Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Kung Fu Panda (2008); with all 10 categories won out of 16 nominations.
  • The Iron Giant (1999) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010); with all 10 categories won out of 15 nominations.
  • Mulan (1998); with all 10 categories won out of 12 nominations.
  • Finding Nemo (2002); with all 9 categories won out of 12 nominations
  • The Wild Robot (2024); with all 9 categories won out of 10 nominations
  • The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021); with all 8 categories won out of 8 nominations.
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Klaus (2019) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023); with all 7 categories won out of 7 nominations.
  • Pocahontas (1995); with all 4 categories won out of 7 nominations.
  • Spirited Away (2002); with all 4 categories won out of 4 nominations.
  • I Lost My Body (2019); with all 3 categories won out of 3 nominations.
• Most nominations received by feature-length films: 16
  • The Incredibles (2004), Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Kung Fu Panda (2008)
• Most nominations received by a short film: 9
  • Prep & Landing (2009)
• Most nominations received without a single win by a feature-length film: 0 out of 13
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Television

• Most wins received by a single season: 9
  • Arcane (first season, 2021)
• Most awards sweep every nominations with more than 3 in a single year
  • Arcane (first season, 2021); with all 9 categories won out of 9 nominations

References

References

1. "ASIFA-Hollywood – History".
2. "53rd Annual Annie Awards".
3. Shanfeld, Ethan. (January 20, 2022). "Annie Awards 2022 Move to March, Go Virtual Due to COVID Concerns".
4. Sandell, Scott. (July 28, 2017). "Classic Hollywood: June Foray, a profile in characters". [[Los Angeles Times]].
5. (July 27, 2017). "June Foray, Voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Dies at 99".
6. "An Interview with June Foray". Annie Awards.
7. "Rules and Categories".
8. (September 12, 2022). "50th Annie Awards Call for Entries with New Limited Series Category".
9. "Why Don Hertzfeldt Probably Won't Win an Annie". Cartoon Brew.
10. Debruge, Peter. (August 25, 2010). "Disney withdraws from Annie Awards". Variety.
11. Pond, Steve. (August 18, 2011). "Disney, Pixar End Annie Awards Boycott".