Pixar’s animated movie Coco won in every one of the categories in which it was nominated at the 45th Annie Awards on Saturday. Set in Mexico and revolving around the Day of the Dead ritual celebration, Coco won 11 honours, including best animated feature, direction (for Lee Unkrich and Adrina Molina), animated effects, character animation, music and production design.
“Coming on the heels its Golden Globe win for animated feature, the Annies victory cements “Coco’s” position as the frontrunner in the category for the Oscars,” a report in Variety noted.
The awards are given by the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association. Among the other winners at this year’s event was Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner, about a young girl in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan who dresses up as a boy to support her family. The movie has been nominated in the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards, which will be held in March.
Revolting Rhymes, based on Roald Dahl’s interpretation of classic fairy tales, won the award for best animated special production. The Best Animated Short Subject award went to Dear Basketball, written by Kobe Bryant and based on his retirement from the sport.
The best general audience TV/broadcast production and writing went to Cartoon Network’s show Adult Swim. Samurai Jack won three awards: for character design, production design and editorial. Voice actor Tom Kenny won an award for bringing to life the title character of the Nickelodeon show SpongeBob SquarePants.
The Winsor McCay Award for career contributions to animation went to British animator James Baxter, SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg and Canadian animation duo Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis.
Paloma Baeza’s Poles Apart, featuring voice work by Helena Bonham Carter and Joseph May, won the Best Student Film award.