Two Japanese features are among the animated films nominated for the 41st Annie Awards, and one Japanese director will receive a juried award.
Presented by the International Animated Film Society, the Annie Awards cover 30 categories, including Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Special Production, Commercials, Short, and Outstanding Individual Achievements.
“I am very excited about this year’s slate of nominees,” said ASIFA-Hollywood President Frank Gladstone. “We had more submissions to choose from this year, running the gamut from big studio features to indie films, television series to Internet shows, games, shorts and student films, as well as a wonderful group of juried award recipients, all showcasing the huge variety of venues, creativity, technical innovation and storytelling that our art form has to offer.”
Created in 1972 by veteran voice actress June Foray, the Annie Awards have grown in scope and stature for four decades.
Winners will be announced Feb. 1 during the awards ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
• Katsuhiro Otomo, Steven Spielberg and Phil Tippett will receive the Windsor McCay Award for their contributions to the art of animation. Otomo is best known for the manga and anime “Akira,” set in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo. His other credits include “Steamboy” and “Memories.”
• “A Letter to Momo” (Momo e no Tagami), directed by Hiroyuki Okiura, and “The Wind Rises” (Kaze Tachinu), directed by Hayao Miyazaki, were among the nominees for Best Animated Feature. The former film is about an 11-year-old girl dealing with the death of her father; the latter is a fictionalized biography of aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi.
Also nominated are “Despicable Me 2,” “Ernest & Celestine,” “Frozen,” “Monsters University,” and “The Croods.”
• Among the nominees for Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Feature Production is Kitaro Kosaka for “The Wind Rises.”
Also nominated are Thom Roberts for “Epic,” Jonathan Del Val for “Despicable Me 2,” Jakob Jensen for “The Croods,” John Chun Chiu Lee for “Monsters University,” Tony Smeed for “Frozen,” and Patrick Imbert for “Ernest & Celestine.”
• Miyazaki, who has said that “The Wind Rises” will be his last film, was nominated for Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated Feature Production.
Also nominated are Daniel Pennac for “Ernest & Celestine,” Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird and Dan Scanlon for “Monsters University,” and Jennifer Lee for “Frozen.”
• Among the nominees for Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production is Kureha Yokoo for Pixar’s “Toy Story of Terror!”
Also nominated are Brad Schaffer for “Friendship All-Stars of Friendship: Wrong Number,” Eric Urban for “Ubermansion,” JC Tran Quang Thieu and David DeVan for “Toy Story of Terror!” and Keith Kellogg for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”
• Among the nominees for Outstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated Feature Production are Takao Noguchi, Shane Prigmore and Carter Goodrich for “The Croods” and Chris Sasaki for “Monsters University.”
Also nominated are Sylvain Deboissy and Shannon Tindle for “Turbo,” Craig Kellman for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2,” Christophe Lourdelet for “A Monster in Paris,” Eric Guillon for “Despicable Me 2,” and ”Bill Schwab for “Frozen.”
• Among the nominees for Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production is John Aoshima for “Disney Gravity Falls.”
Also nominated are Colin Heck for “The Legend of Korra,” Elaine Bogan for “Dragons: Defenders of Berk,” Stephan Franck for “The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow,” Aaron Springer for “Disney Mickey Mouse,” Angus MacLane for “Toy Story of Terror!” and Harold Harris for “Justin Time.”
• Among the nominees for Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production are Teri Shikasho, Ron Russell, Nick Jenings and Sandra Calleros for “Adventure Time.”
Also nominated are Angela Sung, William Niu, Christine Bian, Emily Tetri and Frederic Stewart for “The Legend of Korra”; Liz Artinian, Ray Feldman, Chris Fisher and George Fort for “What Color Is Your Cleansuit?”; Steven Sugar, Emily Walus, Sam Bosma, Elle Michalka and Amanda Winterstein for “Steven Universe — Gem Glow”; Lynna Blankenship, Dima Malanitchev, Debbie Peterson, Charles Ragins and Jefferson R. Weekley for “The Simpsons — Treehouse of Horror XXIV”; and Christophe Vacher for “Transformers Prime ‘Beast Hunters.’”
• Among the nominees for Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production are Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, Robert Kondo and Ricky Nierva for “Monsters University.”
Also nominated are Christophe Lautrette, Paul Duncan and Dominique R. Louis for “The Croods”; Yarrow Cheney and Eric Guillon for “Despicable Me 2”; Michael Knapp, Greg Couch and William Joyce for “Epic”; Zaza, Zyk for “Ernest & Celestine”; Michael Giaimo, Lisa Keene and David Womersley for “Frozen.”
For a complete list of nominees, visit http://annieawards.org/.