ZOOTOPIA DOMINATES ANNIE AWARDS

Zootopia works its way closer to the Animated Feature Oscar with victory at the Annie Awards. It led November's nominations and leads the awards, winning six out of eleven nods. Disney's box office behemoth remains voters' favourite among animated titles this awards season, and seems to be sailing its way towards the Academy Award later this month. Check out all the details below:

Best Animated Feature
Zootopia (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Outstanding Achievement: Directing in an Animated Production
Byron Howard and Rich Moore (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Jason Bateman (Zootopia)
Auli'i Cravalho (Moana)

Outstanding Achievement: Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Jared Bush and Phil Johnston (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Dean Wellins (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
Christopher Murrie (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Outstanding Achievement: Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Trevor Dalmer, August Hall, Nelson Lowry and Ean McNamara (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Outstanding Achievement: Animated Effects in an Animated Production
Ian J. Coony, John M. Kosnik, Blair Pierpont, Erin V. Ramos and Marlon West (Moana)

Outstanding Achievement: Music in an Animated Feature Production
Camille, Richard Harvey and Hans Zimmer (The Little Prince)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Cory Loftis (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Animation in a Feature Production
Jan Maas (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Best Animated Feature - Independent
The Red Turtle (Studio Ghibli, Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch)

Best Animated Short Subject
Piper (Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Animated Special Production
Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Massive Swerve Studios and Passion Pictures Animation)

Best Student Film
Citipati (Andreas Feix)

Outstanding Achievement: Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
Thomas Bevan, Andrew Graham, Georg Kaltenbrunner, Michael Marcuzzi and Yoon Ji Hyun - Mirror dimension (Doctor Strange)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Peta Bayley, Benjamin Jones, Andrew R. Jones and Gabriele Zucchelli (The Jungle Book)

June Foray Award
Bill Kroyer and Sue Kroyer

Winsor McCay Award
Dale Baer
Caroline Leaf and Oshii Mamoru

UB Iwerks Award
Google Spotlight's virtual reality platform

Certificate of Merit
Leslie Ezah
Gary Perkovac

Special Achievement Award
Life, Animated

2016 ANNIE AWARD NOMINATIONS

The DreamWorks contingent strikes again, as Kung Fu Panda 3 sneaks its way into the Best Animated Feature slate for the 2016 Annie Awards. But that underwhelming and underperforming sequel's success is hardly the main story; that, rather, would be the dominance of Kubo and the Two Strings, with its hugely impressive 10 mentions, and Zootopia, whose lead of 11 is more than distributor Disney's cumulative haul for its fellow two top category nominees, Finding Dory and Moana. Annie Award winners will be announced on the 4th of February.

Best Animated Feature

Finding Dory (Pixar Animation Studios)

Kubo and the Two Strings (Laika)

Kung Fu Panda 3 (DreamWorks Animation)

Moana (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Zootopia (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Outstanding Achievement: Directing in an Animated Production

Claude Barras (My Life as a Courgette)

Michael Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle)

Byron Howard and Rich Moore (Zootopia)

Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Shinkai Makoto (Your Name.)

Outstanding Achievement: Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Jason Bateman (Zootopia)

Auli'i Cravalho (Moana)

Katie Crown (Storks)

Zooey Deschanel (Trolls)

Art Parkinson (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Outstanding Achievement: Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Jared Bush and Phil Johnston (Zootopia)

Chris Butler and Marc Haimes (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Michael Dudok de Wit and Pascale Ferran (The Red Turtle)

Celine Sciamma (My Life as a Courgette)

Outstanding Achievement: Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Mark Garcia (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Trevor Jimenez (Finding Dory)

Normand Lemay (Moana)

Claire Morrissey (Trolls)

Dean Wellins (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

Jeff Draheim (Moana)

Nazim Meslem (April and the Extraordinary World)

Jeremy Milton and Fabienne Rawley (Zootopia)

Christopher Murrie (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Kevin Pavlovic (Sausage Party)

Outstanding Achievement: Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kung Fu Panda 3

The Little Prince

Trolls

Zootopia

Outstanding Achievement: Animated Effects in an Animated Production

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kung Fu Panda 3

Moana

The Red Turtle

Zootopia

Outstanding Achievement: Music in an Animated Feature Production

Camille, Richard Harvey and Hans Zimmer (The Little Prince)

Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis (Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders)

Alexandre Desplat (The Secret Life of Pets)

Laurent Perez del Mar (The Red Turtle)

Joby Talbot (Sing)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana - Heihei, Kakamora, Lalotai Characters (Realm of Monsters), Maui, Moana, Pua and Tamatoa

The Secret Life of Pets

Trolls - Bergens and Trolls

Zootopia - Bellwether, Chief Bogo, Clawhauser, Doug, Finnick, Flash, Fru Fru, Judy Hopps, Koslov, Miscellaneous characters, Mr. Big, Mr. and Mrs. Otterton, Duke Weaselton, Nick Wilde and Yax

Outstanding Achievement: Character Animation in a Feature Production

Finding Dory

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kung Fu Panda 3

Zootopia - Chief Bogo, Bonnie Hopps, Judy Hopps, Stu Hopps and Nick Wilde

Zootopia - Flash, Judy Hopps, Koslov, Mr. Big and Nick Wilde

Best Animated Feature - Independent

Long Way North (2 Minutes, France 3 Cinema, Maybe Movies, Norlum Studios and Sacrebleu Productions)

Miss Hokusai (Production I.G.)

My Life as a Courgette (Blue Spirit Productions, Gebeka Films, KNM and Rita Productions)

The Red Turtle (Studio Ghibli, Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch)

Your Name. (CoMix Wave Films)

Best Animated Short Subject

Blind Vaysha (National Film Board of Canada)

Deer Flower (Studio ZAZAC)

Path Title Sequence (Acme Filmworks)

Pearl (Evil Eye Pictures and Google Spotlight Stories)

Piper (Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Animated Special Production

Audrie & Daisy (Actual Films for Netflix, and AfterImage Public Media)

Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll (DreamWorks Animation)

Little Big Awesome (Amazon Studios and Titmouse, Inc.)

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (CBS Films, J. P. Entertainment and Participant Media)

Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Massive Swerve Studios and Passion Pictures Animation)

Best Student Film

The Abyss (Huang Li Ying)

Citipati (Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg)

FISHWITCH (Adrienne Dowling)

Twiddly Things (Adara Todd)

The Wrong End of the Stick (Terri Matthews)

Outstanding Achievement: Animated Effects in a Live Action Production

The BFG

Deepwater Horizon

Doctor Strange

Ghostbusters

Warcraft

Outstanding Achievement: Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Captain America: Civil War - Spider-Man

Game of Thrones (Battle of the Bastards)

The Jungle Book (Peta Bayley, Andrew R. Jones, Benjamin Jones and Gabriele Zucchelli)

The Jungle Book (Andrei Coval, Andrew R. Jones, Paul Story, Eteuati Tema and Dennis Yoo)

Warcraft - Orcs

June Foray Award

Bill Kroyer and Sue Kroyer

Winsor McCay Award

Dale Baer

Caroline Leaf and Oshii Mamoru

UB Iwerks Award

Google Spotlight's virtual reality platform

Certificate of Merit

Leslie Ezah

Gary Perkovac

Special Achievement Award

Life, Animated

INSIDE OUT SWEEPS THE ANNIE AWARDS

The Academy didn't see fit to give Inside Out the same treatment they've given other, equally-successful, equally-acclaimed Pixar films in recent years, fobbing it off with two token nominations. At least Annie voters saw some sense, handing it out 10 awards from its 14 nominations; double noms in some categories mean that Inside Out misses only one potential win, taking every single other. While this does mean that other, deserving titles have slim pickings to choose from, I'm not complaining - this from the once-DreamWorks-dominated group that gave Kung Fu Panda every award it could find, snubbing WALL-E in the process. Pixar may be no underdog, but I was always rooting for it anyway. Here are their nominations, and below, their awards:

Best Animated Feature

Inside Out

Outstanding Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Pete Docter (Inside Out)

Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Phyllis Smith (Inside Out)

Outstanding Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Outstanding Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Tony Rosenast (Inside Out)

Outstanding Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

Kevin Nolting (Inside Out)

Outstanding Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Ralph Eggleston (Inside Out)

Outstanding Animated Effects in an Animated Production

Michael Hall, Stephen Marshall, Michael K. O'Brien, Jon Reisch and Magnus Wrenninge (The Good Dinosaur)

Outstanding Animated Effects in a Live Action Production

Florent Andorra, Michael Balog, George Kaltenbrunner and Jim van Allen (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Outstanding Music in an Animated Feature Production

Michael Giacchino (Inside Out)

Outstanding Character Animation in an Animated Production

Allison Rutland (Inside Out)

Outstanding Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Kevin Lan, Adrian Millington, Alexander Poei, Matthew Shumway and Blaine Toderian - 'Judy' (The Revenant)

Outstanding Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Albert Lozano and Chris Sasaki (Inside Out)

Best Animated Feature - Independent

The Boy and the World

Best Student Film

Ed (Taya Neyestani)

Best Animated Short Subject

World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt)

Best Animated Special Production

He Named Me Malala

2015 ANNIE AWARD NOMINATIONS - PIXAR LEADS WITH TWO MOST-NOMINATED FILMS

Surprising no-one, Pixar Animation Studios takes prominence with the 2015 Annie Award nominations. Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur claim the most and the second-most mentions, respectively, leaving rival studios in the dust! Breaking with tradition, the year's sole DreamWorks Animation production, Home, barely registers with voters. Among other things, these nominations seem to confirm that there's considerable love in the animation community for Aardman's Shaun the Sheep Movie, and deservedly so. Winners will be announced on the 6th of February. All the nominations below:

Best Animated Feature

Anomalisa

The Good Dinosaur

Inside Out

The Peanuts Movie

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Outstanding Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Roger Allers (Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet)

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak (Shaun the Sheep Movie)

Pete Docter (Inside Out)

Raul Garcia (Extraordinary Tales)

Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa)

Steve Martino (The Peanuts Movie)

Yonebayashi Hiromasa (When Marnie Was There)

Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Pierre Coffin (Minions)

Alex Garfin (The Peanuts Movie)

Jon Hamm (Minions)

Tom Kenny (The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water)

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Anomalisa)

Hadley Belle Miller (The Peanuts Movie)

Amy Poehler (Inside Out)

Phyllis Smith (Inside Out)

Outstanding Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak (Shaun the Sheep Movie)

Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Yonebayashi Hiromasa (When Marnie Was There)

Outstanding Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Enrico Casarosa, Tony Rosenast and J. P. Vine (The Good Dinosaur)

Habib Louati (Minions)

Bill Presing (The Good Dinosaur)

Tony Rosenast (Inside Out)

Antonio Santamaria (Extraordinary Tales)

Shi Do Mee (Inside Out)

Mike Smukavic (Hotel Transylvania 2)

Rosana Sullivan (The Good Dinosaur)

Outstanding Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

Jennifer Dolce (Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet)

Garret Elkins (Anomalisa)

Sim Evan-Jones (Shaun the Sheep Movie)

Kevin Nolting (Inside Out)

Outstanding Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Ale Abreu (The Boy and the World)

Sharon Calahan, Bryn Imagire, Harley Jessup, Noah Klocek and Huy Nguyen (The Good Dinosaur)

Jason Carpenter (He Named Me Malala)

Ralph Eggleston (Inside Out)

Eric Guillon (Minions)

Gavin Lines and Matt Perry (Shaun the Sheep Movie)

Emil Mitev (Home)

Outstanding Animated Effects in an Animated Production

The Good Dinosaur

Home

Hotel Transylvania 2

Inside Out

Minions

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

Outstanding Animated Effects in a Live Action Production

Avengers: Age of Ultron

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Jurassic World

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials

Outstanding Music in an Animated Feature Production

Carter Burwell (Anomalisa)

Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna (The Good Dinosaur)

Emicida, Ruben Feffer, GEM Grupo Experimental de Musica and Gustavo Kurlat (The Boy and the World)

Michael Giacchino (Inside Out)

Kevin Riepl (Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem)

Outstanding Character Animation in an Animated Production

Hichem Arfaoui (Minions)

B. J. Crawford (The Peanuts Movie)

Mark Donald (Home)

Mark C. Harris (The Good Dinosaur)

Travis Hathaway (Inside Out)

K. C. Roeyer (The Good Dinosaur)

Allison Rutland (Inside Out)

Outstanding Character Animation in a Live Action Production

'Azog' (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)

'The Hulk' (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

'Indominus Rex' (Jurassic World)

'Judy' (The Revenant)

'Smaug' (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)

'Ultron' (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Outstanding Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Stephen DeStefano and Craig Kellman (Hotel Transylvania 2)

Eric Guillon (Minions)

Albert Lozano and Chris Sasaki (Inside Out)

Matt Nolte (The Good Dinosaur)

Best Animated Feature - Independent

The Boy and the Beast

The Boy and the World

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet

When Marnie Was There

Best Student Film

Can I Stay? (Ringling College)

The Casebook of Nips & Porkington (Melody Wang)

Dodoba (Lee Yon Hui)

Ed (Taha Neyestani)

Life Smartphone (Xie Cheng Lin)

Mother (Stephanie Chiew)

Nice to Meeteor You (Li Yi Zhou)

Shift (Maria Cecilia Puglesi)

Best Animated Short Subject

Carface

Dissonance

If I Was God

On Ice

Sanjay's Super Team

World of Tomorrow

Best Animated Special Production

Cobain: Montage of Heck

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas

He Named Me Malala

I Am a Witness

Kite

Niko and the Sword of Light