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

AND THE 2017 PGA WINNERS ARE...

...boring af.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

La La Land (Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt)

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Zootopia (Clark Spencer)

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow)

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

REVIEW - ZOOTOPIA (BYRON HOWARD AND RICH MOORE)

Modern times are upon us, and the movies are catching up. Zootopia uses its sense of social responsibility not as an accoutrement to the action, nor as pithy pandering to a subset of its demographic, but as an integral component within its narrative and thematic thrusts. It's not merely a film about acceptance and tolerance, it actively is acceptance and tolerance in film form, a piece of promotional material for the values it upholds itself. And no, you may not need to hear it, nor read about it, but consider the impact that a sense of social responsibility could have in a film when its demographic is children: Zootopia is an educational work whether it intends to be or not, and it's most satisfying to see its filmmakers embrace this responsibility. Indeed, they not only embrace it but enrich it, shading it not only with sweetness but with incisiveness too - Zootopia understands the dangers of prejudice and stereotyping whilst also appreciating the legitimacy of their inception in the mind (subjectively speaking). As in real life, the villains here are doing the wrong things for what they believe are the right reasons. Such intelligence aside, though it informs the majority of this film's content, Zootopia is otherwise constituted of a half-decent detective plot, a prosaic aesthetic, and a generally strong but spotty sense of humour. It doesn't even appear to attempt to translate its noble thematic concerns into equally commendable artistic intent - surely a missed opportunity, if not disastrously so.