May 21, 2021

"Wolf Walker" and "Boy and Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese" won the Irish Animation Award

The biennial Irish Animation Awards held their fourth edition on Friday night.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the joint-biggest winner of the night was Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers, one of the most high-profile animated features in this year's awards race. It took home three prizes, for best Irish feature or special, best animation sequence, and best editing. The Kilkenny studio also won two prizes for its animated kids' series Dorg Van Dango, which is co-produced by Canada's Wildbrain.

Three awards were also presented to Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese, a co-production involving the Dublin studio Kavaleer. The children's series is a kind of spoof sitcom in which the titular children and animals (not to mention the anthropomorphic cheese) learn to live together. The show airs on RTÉ in Ireland and CBBC in the U.K.

Two socially conscious shorts were honored. Her Song, from Dublin studio Radii, won best animated short film; it looks at Ireland's inglorious history of “mother and baby homes,” in which women who'd had children out of wedlock were institutionalized and often treated awfully. Shergar, directed by Cora McKenna at Denmark's The Animation Workshop, was named best student film; the protagonist is a street kid fleeing an abusive home.

Read on for the full list of winners:

Best Animated Preschool Series

Claude - “Twinkle Toes Terry” (Colin Williams, Tim Harper; Sixteen South)

Best Animated Kids Series 6+

Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese (Kavaleer Productions)

Best Animated Short Film

Her Song (Éabha Bortolozzo, Jack Kirwan)

Best International Short Film

Something Borrowed (Micky Wozny, Andrew St Maur)

Best Writer for Preschool Animation

Pablo (Andrew Brenner; Paper Owl Films)

Best Writer for an Animated Series

Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese – “Neighbourhood Watchdog” (Baljeet Rai, Henry Gifford; Kavaleer)

Best Animation for Apps, Games, and Interactive

Tot Cop (Jason Tammemagi, Meabh Tammemagi; Mooshku)

Best Art Direction and Design

Wolkwalkers (Maria Pareja; Cartoon Saloon)

Best Director of an Animated Series

Dorg Van Dango (Fabian Erlinghauser, Matt Ferguson; Cartoon Saloon)

Best Animation Sequence

Wolfwalkers (Cartoon Saloon)

Best Music

Dorg Van Dango (Leo Pearson, Cartoon Saloon)

Best Sound Design

The Dead Hands of Dublin (Fransisco Rios; Pink Kong Studios, Gorilla Post)

Best Irish Feature or Special

Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart; Cartoon Saloon)

Best Storyboarding

Zog and the Flying Doctors (Stephen Duignan, Christian Puille and Greta Traldi; Magic Light Pictures/Giant Animation)

Best Editing

Wolfwalkers (Richie Cody, Darragh Byrne, Darren Holmes A.C.E; Cartoon Saloon)

Best Student Film

Shergar (Cora McKenna)

Best Irish IP

Critters TV – Series 1 (Aidan O'Donovan, Colm Tobin; Turnip & Duck Ltd.)

Best Newcomer

Studio Meala

Kids' Choice for Best Animated Preschool Series (up to six years old)

Sir Mouse (Salty Dog Pictures)

Kids' Choice for Best Animated Kids' Series (over six years old)

Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese (Kavaleer Productions)