‘Boxtrolls’ Leads Annie Nominations Pack at the 42nd Annual Annie Awards

The International Animated Film Society has unveiled the nominees for the 42nd Annual Annie Awards, which will be celebrated at a ceremony held at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday, 31 January, 2015. LAIKA’s stop-motion family adventure The Boxtrolls has the largest tally of nods with 13, followed by DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon 2 with 10 and Disney’s Big Hero 6 and Cartoon Saloon’s Song of the Sea each tied with seven.

ASIFA-Hollywood’s Board of Directors has also selected three recipients for the Winsor McCay award for career contributions to the art of animation – Didier Brunner, Don Lusk and Lee Mendelson. The June Foray Award for charitable impact on the art and industry of animation will go to Charles Solomon. DreamWorks Animation’s Apollo Software will be honored with the Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement, while The Walt Disney Family Museum will receive a Special Achievement Award in recognition of its unique impact on the medium.

And the nominees are:

Best Animated Feature

Big Hero 6 (Disney)
Cheatin’ (Plymptoons)
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
Song of the Sea (GKIDS/Cartoon Saloon)
The Book of Life (Reel FX)
The Boxtrolls (Focus Features/Laika)
The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros.)
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (GKIDS/Studio Ghibli)

Best Animated Special Production

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Voyager Pictures LLC)
Dawn of the Dragon Racers (DreamWorks)
How Murray Saved Christmas (Universal Television)
Polariffic (Bent Image Lab)
Toy Story That Time Forgot (Pixar)

Best Animated Short Subject

Coda (62 George Street)
Duet (Glen Keane Productions)
Feast (Disney)
Inside Homer – The Simpsons Couch Gag (Episode #549) (Acme Filmworks)
Me and My Moulton (National Film Board of Canada)
Silent (Creative Artists Agency)
The Dam Keeper (Tonko House LLC)
The Raven (Moonbot Studios)

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial

Citizen M: “Swan Song” (Stoopid Buddy Stoodios)
Flight of the Stories (Aardman Animations)
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Plastic Wax)

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

Doc McStuffins (Disney Channel / Disney XD)
Peter Rabbit (Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
Tumble Leaf (Amazon Studios)
Wallykazam! (Nickelodeon)
Zack & Quack (Zodiak Kids)

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For a Children’s Audience

Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)
Gravity Falls (Disney Television Animation)
Legend of Korra (Nickelodeon)
Over The Garden Wall (Cartoon Network)
Wander Over Yonder (Disney)

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Archer (FX Networks)
Back To Backspace (Cartoon Network Studios)
Bob’s Burgers (Bento Box Entertainment)
Rick and Morty (Starburns Industries, Inc.)
Mike Tyson Mysteries (Warner Bros. Animation)
Regular Show (Cartoon Network Studios)
The Simpsons (Fox Television)

Best Video Game

Forza Horizon 2 (Microsoft – Turn 10 Studios)
Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft)
Child of Light (Ubisoft)

Best Student Film

After School (Junyi Xiao)
Dead Over Heels (Jose Matheu)
El Coyote (Javier Barboza)
Frog’s Legs (Katie Tamboer)
My Big Brother (Jason Rayner)
Tiny Nomad (Toniko Pantoja)

Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production

Big Hero 6 (Disney)
Michael Kaschalk, Peter DeMund, David Hutchins, Henrik Falt, John Kosnik
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
James Jackson, Lucas Janin, Tobin Jones, Baptiste Van Opstal, Jason Mayer
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (DreamWorks)
Fangwei Lee, Krzysztof Rost, Jihyun Yoon, Robert Chen
Penguins of Madagascar (DreamWorks)
Mitul Patel, Nicolas Delbecq, Santosh Khedkar, Yash Argawal
The Book of Life (Reel FX)
Augusto Schillaci, Erich Turner, Bill Konersman, Chris Rasch, Joseph Burnette
The Boxtrolls (Focus/Laika)
Rick Sevy, Peter Vickery, Kent Estep, Peter Stuart, Ralph Procida
The LEGO Movie (WB)
Jayandera Danappal, Matt Ebb, Christian Epunan Hernandez, Danielle Brooks, Raphael Gadot

Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in a Live Action Production

Edge of Tomorrow (Sony Pictures Imageworks)
Steve Avoujageli, Atsushi Ikarashi, Pawel Grochola, Paul Waggoner, Viktor Lundqvist
Noah (Industrial Light & Magic)
Raul Essig, Karin Cooper, Rick Hankins, Owen Calouro
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Imageworks)
Charles-Felix Chabert, Daniel La Chapelle, Spencer Lueders, Klaus Seitschek, Chris Messineo
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Weta Digital)
Areito Echevarria, Andreas Soderstrom, Ronnie Menahem, Christoph Sprenger, Kevin Romond
Transformers: Age of Extinction (ILM)
Michael Balog, Jim Van Allen, Rick Hankins, John Hansen
X-Men: Days of Future Past (Digital Domain)
Jeremy Hampton, Daniel Stern, Edmond Smith III, Hiroshi Tsubokawa, Daniel Jenkins

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Toy Story That Time Forgot (Pixar)
Don Crum
Toy Story That Time Forgot (Pixar)
Carlo Vogele
Toy Story That Time Forgot (Pixar)
Ken Kim
Tumble Leaf (Amazon)
Michael Granberry
Tumble Leaf (Amazon)
Teresa Drilling
Wander Over Yonder (Disney Television Animation)
Justin Nichols

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
Fabio Lignini
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
Steven “Shaggy” Hornby
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
Thomas Grummt
Penguins of Madagascar (DreamWorks)
Ravi Kamble
The Boxtrolls (Focus/Laika)
Travis Knight
The Boxtrolls (Focus/Laika)
Malcolm Lamont
The Boxtrolls (Focus/Laika)
Jason Stalman

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Weta)
Daniel Barrett, Paul Story, Eteuati Tema, Alessandro Bonora, Dejan Momcilovic
Guardians of the Galaxy (Framestore)
Kevin Spruce, Dale Newton, Sidney Kombo, Chris Mullins, Brad Silby
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Weta)
Eric Reynolds, David Clayton, Andreja Vuckovic, Guillaume Francois, Gios Johnston

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Video Game

Assassin’s Creed Unity (Ubisoft)
Mike Mennillo
Don’t Starve: Console Edition (Klei Entertainment Inc.)
Child Of Light (Ubisoft)
Alex Drouin

Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Disney Mickey Mouse (Disney)
Andy Suriano
Wander Over Yonder (Disney)
Benjamin Balistreri
Welcome to the Wayne (Nickelodeon)
Zac Gorman

Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Big Hero 6 (Disney)
Shiyoon Kim, Jin Kim
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (DreamWorks)
Timothy Lamb, Joe Moshier
Penguins of Madagascar (DreamWorks)
Craig Kellman, Joe Moshier, Stevie Lewis, Todd Kurosawa
Rio 2 (Blue Sky Studios)
Sang Jun Lee, Jason Sadler, José Manuel Fernandez Oli
Song of the Sea (GKIDS/Cartoon Saloon)
Tomm Moore, Marie Thorhauge, Sandra Anderson, Rosa Ballester Cabo
The Book of Life (Reel FX)
Paul Sullivan, Sandra Equihua, Jorge R. Gutierrez
The Boxtrolls (Focus/Laika)
Mike Smith

Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)
Yuasa Masaaki, Eunyoung Choi
Archer (FX)
Bryan Fordney
Bob’s Burgers (Bento Box)
Jennifer Coyle & Bernard Derriman
Disney Mickey Mouse (Disney)
Aaron Springer
Gravity Falls (Disney)
Rob Renzetti
Over The Garden Wall (Cartoon Network)
Robert Alvarez, Ken Bruce, Larry Leichliter
The Simpsons (The Simpsons)
Matthew Nastuk
Wander Over Yonder (Disney)
David Thomas

Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Big Hero 6 (Disney)
Don Hall & Chris Williams
Cheatin’ (Plymptoons)
Bill Plympton
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
Dean DeBlois
Song of the Sea (GKIDS/Cartoon Saloon)
Tomm Moore
The Book of Life (Reel FX)
Jorge R. Gutierrez
The Boxtrolls (Focus/Laika)
Anthony Stacchi & Graham Annable
The LEGO Movie (WB)
Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, Directors; Chris McKay, Co-Director
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (GKIDS/Ghibli)
Isao Takahata