The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced nominations today for its 37th Annual Annie

Awards recognizing the year’s best animated features, television productions, commercials, short subjects and outstanding individual achievements in the field of animation. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “The Princess and the Frog” received eight nominations, including Best Animated Feature and individual nominations for animated effects, character animation, production design and voice acting, while its “Prep and Landing” received nine nominations including Best Animated Television Production and individual nominations for character animation, character design, music, production design, storyboarding and writing.

DreamWorks Animation received 11 nominations, including Best Animated Television Production for “Merry Madagascar.” Laika received a total of 10 nominations including Best Animated Feature “Coraline” and Pixar Animation Studios received a total of nine nominations including Best Animated Feature “Up.” Completing the list of Best Animated Features nominated are: “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” Sony Pictures Animation, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” 20th Century Fox and “The Secret of Kells,” Cartoon Saloon.

ASIFA-Hollywood Announces Nominations for 37th Annual Annie Awards 2-2-2-2

Nickelodeon leads the field in television with 12 nominations, including three for Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children: “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “The Mighty B!,” and “The Penguins of Madagascar.” Completing the nominations in this category are Disney Television’s “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and Cartoon Network Studio’s “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.” Nominees for the Best Animated Television Production are “Glenn Martin, DDS,” Torante, Cuppa Coffee Studios & Rogers Communications, “Merry Madagascar,” DreamWorks Animation, “Prep and Landing,” ABC Family/Walt Disney Animation Studios, and “The Simpsons,” Gracie Films.

Winners will be announced at the 37th Annual Annie Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 6, 2010, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA. For a complete listing of Annie Award nominations and event information, please go to www.annieawards.org.

Special juried awards honoring career achievement and exceptional contributions to animation will also be awarded: Winsor McCay award – Tim Burton, Bruce Timm and Jeffrey Katzenberg for career contributions to the art of animation; June Foray award – Tom Sito for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation; Ub Iwerks award – William T. Reeves for the development of particle systems for computer animation. This system has led to the ability to simulate such effects as fire, explosions, smoke, moving water, sparks, falling leaves, clouds, fog, snow, dust, meteor trails, hair, fur, grass and abstract visual effects such as glowing trails and magic spells; Special Achievement Annie award – Martin Meunier and Brian McLean for the development and use of the Rapid Prototyping (RP) process for stop motion animation. Starting with hand crafted sculpts as a guide, CG artists built the characters in the computer and animate key expressions. The RP system then builds 3-dimentional objects that are finished by hand and placed on the stop motion figures; and Certificate of Merit award – Myles Mikulic, Danny Young, Michael Woodside for their service to the art, craft and industry of animation. –more–

ASIFA-Hollywood Announces Nominations for 37th Annual Annie Awards 3-3-3-3

I congratulate all of the 2009 Annie Award nominees and award recipients for their outstanding work. This has been an unprecedented year for animation and I look forward to an exciting ceremony in February.
Antran Manoogian, ASIFA-Hollywood President

The Annie Awards’ black-tie ceremony will feature a lively mix of animation luminaries, celebrity presenters and comedic talent to celebrate this year’s best of the best. A pre-reception begins at 5:00 pm with the awards ceremony following 7:00 pm. A post-show celebration immediately follows at UCLA’s Royce Hall. More than 1,500 entertainment industry insiders are expected to attend the annual Annie Awards.

ASIFA-Hollywood is the largest of an international network of chapters and supports a range of animation initiatives through its membership. Current projects include an animation archive, library and museum, classes and screenings, and animated film preservation efforts.

The industry’s oldest and most prestigious award, The Annie Award is considered an important industry benchmark and an annual predictor of the Academy Award for best animated feature.

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