Feb 3, 2019

Annie Awards 2019 Winners: "Spider-Verse" Wins 7 Awards including Best Feature, Netflix Sweep Series Award

Sony Pictures Animation made a statement Saturday night at ASIFA-Hollywood's 46th annual Annie Awards. With Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Sony studio won the Annie for Best Animated Feature for the first time in its 17-year history.

Not only that, Spider-Verse went seven for seven, winning every category in which it was nominated, including the feature animation category prizes for directing, writing, character animation, character design, production design, and editorial. If there was any doubt about the most exceptional American animated feature of 2018, the Annie Award voters set the record straight tonight and gave Spider-Verse a big boost as the film gets set to go before Oscar voters.

In accepting the award for animated feature, Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller implored other artists in the industry to follow their lead and reach beyond the cookie-cutter templates of most feature animation production. Lord said, “Please keep taking risks - they pay off,” while Miller added, “Go out there and break new ground, everybody.”

Spider-Verse's domination at the Annie Awards is all the more remarkable considering that the film was not considered an awards season frontrunner when the nominations were announced at the beginning of last December, which was before the film had been released theatrically. It certainly wasn't the most nominated film at the Annies; the two most nominated films were Disney-Pixar's Incredibles 2, with 11 noms, and Walt Disney Animation Studio's Ralph Breaks the Internet, with 10. The Disney duo netted just three total awards between them: Incredibles 2 won storyboarding and music, while Ralph was honored for animated effects. (Don't feel too sorry for the Walt Disney Company though; it still won more Annies tonight than any other company with a total of ten.)

Another big winner tonight was Netflix, which won seven total awards, including all three categories for Animated Television/Broadcast productions: Storybots in the preschool children category, Hilda for the children's category, and Bojack Horseman for general audience. (And by the way, the Annies is overdue to change the name of these categories too; none of its winners in the television/broadcast categories were actually made for television or broadcast.)

Mercury Filmworks' Hilda series won two other awards as well - character animation and writing for a tv/broadcast production - making it the most-awarded series of the evening.

Two other current Oscar nominees, both hand-drawn projects, also earned recognition: Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai won the Best Independent Animated Feature prize, while Trevor Jimenez's short film Weekends took Best Animated Short. And speaking of hand-drawn animation, Mary Poppins Returns also picked up two honors: Best Animated Special Production and Character Animation in a Live Action Production.

Here's the complete list of winners from the ceremony at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation

Mirai Studio Chizu

Mary Poppins Returns Walt Disney Studios

Weekends Past Lives Productions

Crow: The Legend Baobab Studios

Greenpeace “There's a Rang-Tan In My Bedroom” Passion Animation Studios

Ask the StoryBots Episode: How Do Computers Work- JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix

Hilda Episode: Chapter 1: The Hidden People Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks

BoJack Horseman Episode: The Dog Days are Over Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix

Best Friend Nicholas Olivieri, Yi Shen, Juliana de Lucca, Varun Nair, David Feliu

Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters Episode: The Eternal Knight Pt. 2 DreamWorks Animation Television Visual Effects Supervisor: David M.V. Jones Overseas FX Supervisor: Vincent Chou Overseas Lead FX Artist: Clare Yang

Ralph Breaks The Internet Walt Disney Animation Studios Head of Effects Animation: Cesar Velazquez Effects Lead: Marie Tollec Effects Lead: Alexander Moaveni Effects Lead: Peter DeMund Foundation Effects Lead: Ian J. Coony

Hilda Episode: (Various Episodes) Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks Character Animator: Scott Lewis Character: The King, Hilda, Arfur

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation Animator: David Han Character: Multiple

Mary Poppins Returns Walt Disney Pictures Animators: Chris Sauve, James Baxter, Sandro Cleuzo

GRIS Nomada Studio Lead Animator: Adrian Miguel Character: Gris (Cinematics and In-Game) Lead Animator: Adrian Garcia Character: Gris (Cinematics) Lead Animator: Adrian Miguel Character: Sombra

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Episode: Freebird Walt Disney Television Animation Character Designer: Amanda Jolly Character: Rapunzel Bird, Cassandra Bird, Father Parrot, Special Birds

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation Shiyoon Kim : Shiyoon Kim Character: Uncle Aaron, Rio, Peter, Miles, King Pin, Gwen, Aunt May, Goblin, Jefferson

Disney Mickey Mouse Episode: Feed the Birds Disney Television Animation Director: Eddie Trigueros

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation Directors: Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey

Disney Mickey Mouse Episode: Springtime Disney Television Animation Composer: Christopher Willis

Incredibles 2 Pixar Animation Studios Composer: Michael Giacchino

Age of Sail Episode: n/a Google Spotlight Stories, Broad Reach Pictures Production Design: Céline Desrumaux, Jasmin Lai

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation Production Design: Justin K. Thompson

(tie)Disney Mickey Mouse Episode: Carnaval Disney Television Animation Storyboard Artist: Ramirez Ramos Alonso

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode: Mystic Mayhem Nickelodeon Animation Studio Storyboard Artist: Kevin Molina-Ortiz

Incredibles 2 Pixar Animation Studios Storyboard Artist: Dean Kelly

BoJack Horseman Episode: Free Churro Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix Voice Actor: Will Arnett Character: BoJack

Isle of Dogs Fox Searchlight Pictures / Indian Paintbrush / American Empirical Pictures Chief: Bryan Cranston Character: Chief

Hilda Episode: Chapter 8: The Tide Mice Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks Writer: Stephanie Simpson

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation Writer: Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman

Big Hero 6: The Series Walt Disney Television Animation Nominee: Charles Jones, Joe Molinari, Dao Le, Vartan Nazarian, David Vazquez

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation Nominee: Bob Fisher, Andrew Leviton, Vivek Sharma

Ralph Eggleston Frank Braxton (posthumously) Andrea Romano

Ton Roosendaal for Blender Open Source Animation Software

Adam Burke (posthumously)

Jason Jones