52nd Annie Awards: ‘The Wild Robot’ Dominates with 9, ‘Flow’ Wins Two

Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot dominated the 52nd Annie Awards for animation with nine wins from its 10 nominations, including Best Direction for Chris Sanders, Best Production Design, Best Character Design, Best Character Animation, Best FX, Best Music (Oscar-nominated composer Kris Bowers), Best Voice Acting (Lupita Nyong’o as Roz), and Best Editorial. The film was not nominated for Best Writing and Best Storyboarding.

Best Writing went to the no-dialogue Latvian Oscar entry Flow, which also won the Best Feature – Independent Award. While The Wild Robot has the lion’s share of total critics awards wins for animated features, Flow bested it at the Golden Globes, New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, as well as picking a win at the European Film Awards. The pair are set for a real match up at the Oscar not unlike when The Boy and the Heron topped Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse last year but Spider-Verse was hobbled a bit by being the middle film of a trilogy and Heron with Hayao Miyazaki on its side was too hard to ignore.

which were announced this morning, followed by Walt Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Aardman and Netflix’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, with seven apiece; and Locksmith Animation and Netflix’s That Christmas, with six.

Oscar-nominated animated short Wander to Wonder was a winner last night, while Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Oscar-nominated visual effects, won the Annie Award for character animation in a live action production over fellow monkey movie Better Man.

The 52nd Annie Awards were held February 8 at UCLA’s Royce Hall, where several juried awards were also presented. Aaron Blaise, Eunice Macaulay and Normand Roger was honored with Winsor McCay Awards for career achievement. Women in Animation was recognized with the June Foray Award for charitable impact; Alberto Menache, with the Ub Iwerks Award for technical innovation; and the “original directors” of Walt Disney’s animated films, with a Special Achievement Award.

Here is the complete list of winners for the 52nd Annie Awards.

Best Feature
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation

Best Feature – Independent
Flow
Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well Studio

Best Special Production
Orion and the Dark
DreamWorks Animation

Best Short Subject
Wander to Wonder
Circe Films, Kaap Holland Film, Les Productions de Milou, Beast Animation, Blink Industries &
Pictanovo

Best Sponsored
Fuzzy Feelings
Passion Pictures Hungry Man

Best TV/Media – Preschool
The Tiny Chef Show
Imagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions and Nickelodeon Productions Episode: Tiny
Chef’s Spooky Stump Spectacular

Best TV/Media – Children
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “The Molecular Level”
Flying Bark Productions, Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded Television, Cinema Gypsy

Best TV/Media – Mature
Bob’s Burgers – “They Slug Horses, Don’t They?”
20th Television Animation / FOX Entertainment

Best TV/Media – Limited Series
Dream Productions – “A Night to Remember”
Pixar Animation Studios

Best Student Film
Adiós
National Film and Television School
José Prats, Bernardo Angeletti

Best FX – Feature
The Wild Robot
Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve Avoujageli
DreamWorks Animation

Best FX – TV/Media
Arcane – “The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Guillaume Degroote, Aurélien Ressencourt, Adam Bachiri, Guillaume Zaouche, Jérôme Dupré
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix

Best Character Animation – Feature
The Wild Robot
Fabio Lignini
DreamWorks Animation

Best Character Animation – TV/Media
Arcane
Tom Gouill
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix

Best Character Animation – Live Action
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Christian Kickenweitz, Aidan Martin, Allison Orr, Radiya Alam, Howard Sly
Weta FX

Best Character Animation – Video Game
Neva
Nomada Studio Animation Team
Nomada Studio

Best Character Design – Feature
The Wild Robot
Genevieve Tsai
DreamWorks Animation

Best Character Design – TV/Media
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “The Molecular Level”
Jose Lopez
Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy Productions

Best Direction – Feature
The Wild Robot
Chris Sanders
DreamWorks Animation

Best Direction – TV/Media
Arcane – The Dirt Under Your Nails
Arnaud Delord, Pascal Charrue, Bart Maunoury
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix

Best Music – Feature
The Wild Robot
Kris Bowers
DreamWorks Animation

Best Music – TV/Media
Arcane – “The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Ryan Jillian Santiago, Alexander Seaver, Simon Wilcox
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix

Best Production Design – Feature
The Wild Robot
Raymond Zibach, Ritchie Sacilioc
DreamWorks Animation

Best Production Design – TV/Media
Arcane – “The Dirt Under Your Nails”
Arnaud-Loris Baudry, Julien Georgel, Faustine Dumontier, Charlotte O’Neill
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix

Best Storyboarding – Feature
Despicable Me 4
Habib Louati
Illumination

Best Storyboarding – TV/Media
Arcane – “Killing is a Cycle”
Joséphine Meis
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix

Best Voice Acting – Feature
The Wild Robot
Lupita Nyong’o as Roz
DreamWorks Animation

Best Voice Acting – TV/Media
Dream Productions – “Out of Body”
Paula Pell as Paula
Pixar Animation Studios

Best Writing – Feature
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaža
Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio

Best Writing – TV/Media
Orion and the Dark – “Orion and the Dark”
Charlie Kaufman
DreamWorks Animation

Best Editorial – Feature
The Wild Robot
Mary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian Parker
DreamWorks Animation

Best Editorial – TV/Media
Arcane – “Pretend Like It’s the First Time”
Nazim Meslem, Gilad Carmel, Roberto Fernandez
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix