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The International Animation Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced the winners of the 51st annual Annie Awards on Saturday and Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature film The Boy and the Heron (Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka) won two awards.
Hayao Miyazaki won the award for Best Storyboard for a feature film, and animation director Takeshi Honda won the award for Best Character Animation for a feature film. Honda was present at the event and received both awards.
Makoto Shinkai’s film Suzume was also nominated for both awards.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won Best Picture (The Boy and the Heron and Suzume were both nominated) as well as Best Music (The Boy and the Heron and Suzume were both nominated), Best FX (Suzume was also nominated), Best Production Design (The Boy and the Heron was nominated) and Best Direction (The Boy and the Heron was nominated).
Jack Black was nominated in the category of Best Voice Performance – Feature Film for his role as Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Hokuto Matsumura was also nominated for the role of Sōta Munakata in Suzume. Chloë Grace Moretz won the award for her role in Nimona. Nimona also won Best Writing for a Feature Film (Suzume and The Boy and the Heron were both nominated for the award).
Star Wars: Visions Episode 2 won Best Director for TV/Media for “Screecher’s Reach” by Cartoon Saloon from Ireland (Pokémon Concierge was also nominated). The project also won the Television/Media Award for Best Music for the episode “Aau’s Song” by Triggerfish from South Africa.
The project also received Television/Media nominations for Best FX and Best Production Design for “Sith” by El Guiri from Spain, Best Character Animation for episode “I Am Your Mother” by Aardman from the UK and Best Editing for the episode “Screecher’s Reach” of Cartoon Saloon from Ireland. Blue Eye Samurai won the awards for Best FX, Best Production Design, Best Character Animation and Best Editing.
The animated short series “Pokémon: Path to the Peak” was nominated for Best Television/Media – Limited Series, but Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire won the award.
The live-action film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was nominated in the Best Character Animation-Live Action category, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 won the award.
Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi has received the prestigious Winsor McCay Award in recognition of lifetime or career contributions. Hisaishi was not in attendance because he is organizing a special memorial concert this weekend for the New Japan Philharmonic to celebrate the life of world-famous composer Seiji Ozawa. Ozawa passed away on February 6.
Japanese anime industry experts honored in the In Memoriam section include character designer Takahiro Kimura, Tatsunoko Production co-founder Ippei Kuri, manga creator Leiji Matsumoto, and former Toei President and CEO Osamu Tezuka, and animator Nizo Yamamoto.
The Annie Awards honor outstanding achievement in the field of animation. ASIFA-Hollywood added Best Independent Animated Feature to the 2016 awards to “recognize not only widely released films but also independent animators, international studios, anime and specials may not get the attention they deserve.”Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai won the award in 2019.
The California-based studio’s CGI animated feature Oni: Thunder God’s Tale received awards last year for Best Television/Media – Limited Series and Best Production Design-TV/Media.
No anime won the award in 2022, 2021 or 2020. The 2020 awards awarded the late director Satoshi Kon the prestigious Winsor McCay Award.
Source: Annie Awards’ live stream, Deadline (Patrick Hipes)