‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ wins Best Feature at Annie Awards

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” won another award in its march to the Oscars, picking up the feature award at the 50th Annie Awards presented by ASIFA-Hollywood on Saturday evening.

In addition to being named the top film by the animation industry, “Pinocchio” led the winners list with five trophies overall, including best director awards for del Toro and co-director Mark Gustafson. The stop-motion movie also won for Music (Alexandre Desplat, Roban Katz, Del Toro and Patrick McHale), Production Design (Kurt Enderle and Guy Davis) and Character Design (Tucker Barry).

Del Toro, who came straight from the PGA Awards where he received a trophy for making ‘Pinocchio’, was thrilled to win the Annie for directing with Gustafsson. “Can I say it? I wanted to fuck Annie a lot. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world!” He noted that the Annies show is one place where he doesn’t have to point out that animation is a medium and not a genre. “All I can say about ‘Pinocchio’ is that it was done by artists, and the animators were treated like cast, not technicians.”

“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” also a stop-motion film, followed closely behind, picking up Annie for Indie Feature as well as winning two other awards. Jenny Slate won the voice acting award for her portrayal of Marcel while Slate, Dean Fleischer Camp, Nick Paley and Elizabeth Holm won for feature writing.

Apple TV+ and the BBC have selected four Annies for their animated short “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” including Best Special Production and Direction for a TV/Media Project. The 34-minute film was directed by Peter Benton and Charlie Mackasey, the book on which the film was based. Tim Watts won for TV/Media Character Design and Daniel Boudin received the Gold Zoetrope for Editorial TV/Media.

Netflix’s animation anthology series “Love Death + Robots” received four awards: Best FX for TV/Media (Kirby Miller, Igor Janik, Joseph H. Coleman, Steven Dupuy and Josh Schwartz), Character Design for TV/Media (Alberto Milgo), Writing for TV/Media (Andrew Kevin Walker) and Storyboarding for TV/Media (Emily Dean).

“Avatar: The Way of Water” picked up two wins, one for best FX-feature (Jonathan M. Nixon, David Moraton, Nicholas Illingworth, David Cairo Cebrian and Alex Nautni) and one for character animation-live action (Daniel Barrett, Stewart ) Adcock, Todd Labonte, Douglas McHale and Stephen Cullingford).

“Oni: Thunder God’s Tale” also won two awards, one for TV/Media Limited Series and one for Production Design for TV/Media (Robert Kondo, Rachel Tip-Daniels, Leah Tin, Yohei Hashizume and Masa Inada). Another double winner was “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” for Storyboarding for a Feature (Anthony Holden) and Editorial for a Feature (James Ryan, Jacqueline Karambelas, Natalla Kronombold, Zoe Butler and Katie Parody).

Other winners include “The Tiny Chef Show” for Best TV/Media-Preschool, “Ugly and Invisible City” for TV/Media-Kids, “Bob’s Burgers” for TV/Media-Adults, “Ice Merchants” for Short Subject, “The Soloists” for Student Film, Character Animation/Feature Character Design for “Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course” (Chad Moldenhauer & Hannah Abi-Hanna), “The Bad Guys”, “The Cuphead Show” for Video Game For Taylor Krahenbuhl. Music-for TV/Media (Ego Plum, Dave Wasson and Cosmo Segursson), and Maurice LaMarche for Voice Acting-TV/Media, for his portrayal of Mr. Big in “Zootopia+”.

During the event held at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Asifa-Hollywood celebrated her 50th year. Interspersed throughout the show were clips from the likes of Amy Poehler, Billy Crystal, Patton Oswalt, William Shatner, Josh Gad and the oddball Al Yankovic to congratulate Ennis on her 50th anniversary.

Writer-director and Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, legendary TV series creator Craig McCracken and the late Evelyn Lambert, known for her short films, have each been honored with a Winsor McKay Award for lifetime or career achievement.

In accepting his honor, McCracken thanked all the associates who have served him over the past 30 years. “Thank you for your talent. Thank you for your passion, your time, your inspiration, your friendship and for making these crazy ideas in my head come true.”

Disney CEO Robert Iger presented the Winsor McKay Award to Pete Docter. Iger called Docter “one of the greatest animation filmmakers of his generation. It’s hard to think of anyone who has left a bigger mark on animation, both literally and figuratively, over the past three decades.”

The doctor reflected on his long career with Pixar, saying, “It puts me in a weird state of mind because when I look back at the work I’ve done, I can’t quite understand where it came from. I was there for every big decision (at Pixar), and Still, somehow, the work kind of has a life of its own. I don’t know if it’s familiar to any of you, but it’s a strange effect. But it worked, I’m very grateful that these ideas chose me.

Author, historian and educator Mindy Johnson was presented with the June Four Award for significant and beneficial or charitable influence in the animation industry. The Ub Iwerks Award for Technical Achievement went to the Visual Effects Reference Platform, initially created by Nick Cannon and Francois Chardavoin to bridge the gap between digital content creation software. The Certificate of Merit Award for services to the arts and industry was presented to voice actor John Omohondro.

See the full list of winners below.

characteristics

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Netflix presents you with a double dare! Film/A Shadowmachine Production in association with The Jim Henson Company

Indie feature

“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” Marcel The Movie LLC

Special production

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” NoneMore Productions and Bad Robot Productions

Short topic

“Ice Merchant,” COLA Animation Production and Wild Stream

Sponsored

“Save Ralph,” Arch Model Studio

TV/Media – Preschool

“The Tiny Chef Show,” episode: [Pancakes]Tiny Chef Productions LLC/Imagine Entertainment

TV/Media – Children

“The Abominable and Invisible City,” episode: [Everest Returns]DreamWorks Animation

TV/Media – Mature

“Bob’s Burgers,” episode: [Some Like It Bot Part 1: Eighth Grade Runner]20th Television/Bento Box Entertainment

TV/Media – Limited Series

“Oni: Thunder God’s Tale,” episode: [The Demon Moon Rises]A Netflix Series / A Tonko House Production

Student film

“Solitary” Student Directors: Mehrnaz Abdullahinia, Faben Elias Oldehawariat, Rajahq Isaka, Celeste Jamnek and Yi Liu, School: Gobelins, l’école de l’image

FX – TV/Media

“Love Death + Robot,” episode: [Bad Traveling], Blur Studios for Netflix, FX Production Company: Blur Studios; Kirby Miller, Igor Janik, Joseph H. Coleman, Steven Dupuy, Josh Schwartz

FX – Features

“Avatar: Waterway,” 20th Century Studios/Disney Studios, FX Production Company: Weta FX; Jonathan M. Nixon, David Moraton, Nicholas Illingworth, David Cairo Cebrian, Alex Nowtony

Character Animation – TV/Media

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” episode: [special production]Nothing else

Character Animation – Features

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Netflix presents you with a double dare! Film/A Shadowmachine Productions in association with The Jim Henson Company; Tucker Barry

Character Animation – Live Action

“Avatar: Waterway,” Production Company: 20th Century Studios/Disney Studios, FX Production Company: Weta FX; Daniel Barrett, Stuart Adcock, Todd Labonte, Douglas McHale, Stephen Cullingford

Character Animation – Video Games

“Cuphead – Delicious Last Course,” Weta Studio MDHR; Chad Moldenhauer, Hannah Abi-Hannah

Character Design – TV/Media

“Love Death + Robot,” episode: [Jibaro], Blur Studios for Netflix; Alberto Milgo

Character Design – Traits

“bad boy” DreamWorks Animation; Taylor Krahenbuhl

Direction – TV/Media

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” episode: [special production], NoneMore Productions and Bad Robot Productions; Peter Bainton, Charlie Mackesy

Direction – Features

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Netflix presents you with a double dare! Film/A Shadowmachine Productions in association with The Jim Henson Company; Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson

Music – TV/Media

“Cuphead Show!” episode: [Carn-Evil], Netflix Animation; Ego Plum

Music – Features

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Netflix presents you with a double dare! Film/A Shadowmachine Productions in association with The Jim Henson Company; Alexandre Desplat, Roban Katz, Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale

Production Design – TV/Media

“Oni: Thunder God’s Tale,” episode: [The Demon Moon Rises], A Netflix Series/ A Tonko House Production; Robert Kondo, Rachel Tipp-Daniels, Leah Tin, Yohei Hashizume, Masa Inada

Production Design – Features

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Netflix presents you with a double dare! Film/A Shadowmachine Productions in association with The Jim Henson Company; Kurt Enderle, Guy Davis

Storyboarding – TV/Media

“Love Death + Robot,” episode: [The Very Pulse of the Machine], Blur Studios for Netflix; Emily Dean

Storyboarding – Features

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” DreamWorks Animation; Anthony Holden

Voice Acting – TV/Media

“Zootopia+,” episode: [The Godfather of the Bride], Walt Disney Animation Studios; Maurice LaMarche (Character: Mr. Big)

Voice Acting – Features

“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” Marcel The Movie LLC; Jenny Slate (Character: Marcel)

Writing – TV/Media

“Love Death + Robot,” episode: [Bad Traveling], Blur Studios for Netflix; Andrew Kevin Walker

Writing – Features

“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” Marcel The Movie LLC; Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate, Nick Paley, Elizabeth Holm

Editorial – TV/Media

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” episode: [special production], NoneMore Productions and Bad Robot Productions; Daniel Boudin

Editorial – Features

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” DreamWorks Animation; James Ryan, ACE, Jacqueline Karambelas, Natala Kronbold, Zoe Butler, Katie Parody