Latest news with #AnnieAwards
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How a Lone Feline Upended the Feature Animation Oscar Race With ‘Flow'
One of the surprises of the awards season is Gints Zilbalodis' 'Flow' — the dialog-free tale of a solitary cat's emotional journey as it learns to survive after a great flood — which upended the feature animation race when it won the Golden Globe. Combined with honors such as the Los Angeles Film Critics prize in animation, Latvia's 'Flow' went on to receive a pair of Oscar nods, including best international feature and animated feature — underscoring the message that animation is film, and not just for kids. Other animated Academy Award contenders include DreamWorks Animation's hit 'The Wild Robot' — the fourth Oscar nom for writer/director Chris Sanders — which earned additional noms for its sound and composer Kris Bowers' score. Based on Peter Brown's book, it follows a sentient robot stranded on an uninhabited island. At press time it won additional honors including the PGA Award for an animated feature and nine Annie Awards including best feature. More from Variety Oscar Nominee 'Flow' Passes $20 Million at Global Box Office in Indie Animation Milestone (EXCLUSIVE) 'The Wild Robot' Soars at Annie Awards With Nine Wins; Fire Alarm Interrupts Ceremony 'Flow' Seller Charades Boards 'Your Name' Artist Yoshitoshi Shinomiya's Feature Debut 'A New Dawn' (EXCLUSIVE) The strong list of nominees include Disney/Pixar's 'Inside Out 2,' which earned $1.7 billion worldwide and was the highest grossing movie of 2024. The sequel to Oscar-winner 'Inside Out' got us in touch with our feelings as young Riley reached puberty and experienced new emotions from envy to ennui to, notably, a heavy dose of anxiety. Aardman and Netflix's stop-motion 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl' delivered a new adventure featuring the beloved inventor and his loyal pooch. The popular franchise's creator and four-time Oscar-winner Nick Park and Aardman vet Merlin Crossingham's tale also marked the return of the studio's most infamous villain, the penguin Feathers McGraw, who was first introduced in Park's Oscar-winning short 'The Wrong Trousers.' Also demonstrating the strength of indie animation is the lauded 'Memoir of a Snail' from Adam Elliot (2004 animated short Oscar-winner for 'Harvie Krumpet'). His adult-themed clay animated story follows a snail enthusiast who undergoes hardships and learns to love herself despite them. Since its release, 'Flow' (a co-production between Latvia, Belgium and France) has become Latvia's most-viewed film and the country's first Golden Globe nomination and win (the award went on display in one of the country's museums). Last weekend, it won a pair of Annie Awards including best independent animated feature and one for writing. The film was made with free open-source software Blender for just $3.6 million, though it's the film's meditative storytelling and universal themes that seem to be connecting with voters. The origin of 'Flow' stems from a short that Zilbalodis made in high school about a cat who has to overcome his fear of water. He again turned to a feline for his protagonist when years later — and with a few projects under his belt including his first feature — Zilbalodis had an opportunity to work with a 'bigger' budget and team, which also inform the narrative. 'I wanted to tell a story about those fears I had, and that time of learning how to trust others and how to collaborate with them,' Zilbalodis says. 'I wanted to use these experiences to find, hopefully, something authentic and honest. I decided to revisit that story about a cat who's afraid of water because a cat would be a great protagonist for this story, because in the beginning it needs to be very independent and self-sufficient, and as it goes on this journey and learns to trust, it changes.' While timeless, the film also touches on relevant subjects including the impact of climate change, though Zilbalodis says these evolved organically and were not the initial goal of the story. 'I always start with something more abstract and more kind of emotional — in this case, it was about the cat in the water. And it just made sense to kind of have this big flood to kind of show it in the scariest way possible,' Zilbalodis explains, noting that this catastrophe then involved 'destroying the cat's home and forcing it to kind of find a new way of living and leaving its home and meeting other displaced animals.' Animation and the use of animals, he found, was the right way to tell this story. 'Sometimes you need true fiction, we can find something deeper about real life, especially in animation … I think we can see more of ourselves through this kind of allegory.' He adds that there's an innocence to these animals and also moments of lightness. 'We all have the same fears and wants. And I think through these animals, we can see kind of how a society reacts to certain disasters, and how sometimes these characters can act selfishly or sometimes they support each other,' he says, adding that there are no simple answers. 'I think that would be false and dishonest if we have everything solved by the end, and then the audience leaves the theater and just thinks, 'OK, everything is solved; we don't need to do anything.'' Zilbalodis designed his naturalistic, emotive cat and key characters while the team also worked on characters. The world, he relates, was inspired by real places with references from Southeast Asia to Central America, though they wanted to create something new, without modern-day structures to give it a timeless feeling. The animation is created to appear as if it was shot in long, uninterrupted takes for an immersive feel inspired by live action filmmaking. Zilbalodis, whose influences range from Akira Kurosawa to Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, notes that 'the movement of the camera can express fear or curiosity, and I wanted it to feel kind of grounded as well.' The multihyphenate collaborated on the score alongside Latvian composer Rihards Zaļupe. He notes that as a dialog-free film, the music was all the more vital in the storytelling. The minimalistic score is sometimes peaceful or meditative. Zaļupe played some of the instruments, and the score was performed by Latvia's Riga Symphony. Zilbalodis hopes that more independent films will be made and also seen; indeed, this year's varied crop of animated films as well as recent ones such as 2024 Oscar-winner 'The Boy and the Heron' from Hayao Miyazaki (who has also inspired Zilbalodis' work) are making that sentiment a reality. He notes the choice to use Blender to make 'Flow' was not a compromise. 'It's as good as a tool as any out there, and for a smaller budget, it just makes sense to find [efficiencies],' he says, advising indie filmmakers 'not to get too carried away about the technology and the tools. … It doesn't matter if it's the most expensive, extravagant film ever. I think people really care about stories.' Another challenge for indies is finding an audience. 'But I think that's happening,' he says, noting that 'Flow' found most of its distributors at Cannes, where the movie premiered. ''Flow' is quite universal; that really helped it to find this global audience … Animation, especially, can transcend these boundaries. I think people are accepting that animated films can be for kids, which is fantastic, but it can be for all kinds of audiences,' he continues. 'You don't necessarily need to make a billion dollars and to please every single person in the world. It can appeal to a kind of more specific audience.' Looking ahead, he is optimistic about the state of the animation world. 'I think there's so much more potential to be explored that we're just starting,' he concludes, adding that he thinks independent animation will see a 'big explosion, very soon.' Best of Variety 'Blue Velvet,' 'Chinatown' and 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' Arrive on 4K in June All the Godzilla Movies Ranked 'House of the Dragon': Every Character and What You Need to Know About the 'Game of Thrones' Prequel
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Director Gints Zilbalodis on how ‘Flow' is flooding awards season and making Latvia proud
Last month, Flow received two Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature, which filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis now calls 'a nice surprise.' To 'relieve [his] stress' that morning when the noms were being announcement live, 'it helped to pet [his] dog,' he recalls with a smile. The Latvian movie contains no dialogue as it follows the journey of a small black cat who becomes displaced from its home after an end-of-days-type flood. The feline doesn't have an official name, though Zilbalodis enjoys that some fans have started calling it 'Flow.' Along the way, the cat learns to work together with a quirky group of strangers (a Labrador Retriever, a capybara, a secretarybird, and a ring-tailed lemur) in order to survive the elements. Flow recently won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and two Annie Awards for Best Independent Feature and Best Writing. More from GoldDerby How Oscar-nominated 'Conclave' editor Nick Emerson set up the film's twist ending 'Porcelain War' directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev on their inspiring story of art and resistance in Ukraine First look at Zendaya in 'Euphoria' Season 3, Oscar mystery cleared up, Kendrick cashes in Super Bowl show, and more of today's top stories In his home country, 'Everyone is following every single bit of news that comes out of this awards season,' Zilbalodis states proudly (watch our exclusive video interview above). 'Everything ends up on the front page of the biggest newspapers. I brought the Globe back home, and the National Museum of Art in Latvia wanted to exhibit it, so of course we agreed. They put it in this central entrance of the museum, and it was guarded by these two cat statues, which fits the theme of the film. There were so many people coming to see the Golden Globe, they were waiting for an hour in line to see it.' SEE2025 Annie Awards winners Flow is the first film that Zilbalodis has worked on with a team, so how did that change his personal style of filmmaking? 'When I'm working alone, I don't need to explain anything to anyone. I can just make it,' he says. 'This time, when I was working with a team, I needed to articulate my thoughts. And these ideas could be challenged or questioned, and that can be healthy for filmmaking.' However, he concedes, 'That can also go too far. I think there's a danger of over-explaining everything and losing the things that make it interesting and unique. So, there were certain moments where I had to ask the team to trust me.' Fans often approach Zilbalodis and ask him to 'explain certain scenes,' particularly when it comes to the flood and the absence of humans. But he rather enjoys the mystery of it all. 'I kind of want to leave those questions up to interpretation,' he confesses. 'If I had explained these things, then no one would be talking about this. It's exciting to have discussions like that. I'm really more guided by emotion and experience, rather than logic. I want to create a sense of conveying that the cat is sad … and then I built an entire world to express this feeling.' The filmmaker used the open-source software Blender to create Flow, which he explains, 'Any kid can pick up and now has the access to tools that these big feature films' are utilizing. 'It's free, and there are resources online. We just learned from watching YouTube videos. This already has been a very exciting change for more and more independent films. We can make these films with a smaller budget. These tools are not a compromise in any way. It's just as good, or even better, than some of the very expensive tools out there.' Also in our exclusive video interview, Zilbalodis talks about some of his biggest inspirations in the film industry, including Hayao Miyazaki, Alfonso Cuarón, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Akira Kurosawa, how he cowrote the score without ever 'studying music,' and how Conan O'Brien is the 'perfect person' to host the 97th Academy Awards. Plus, he teases what he can about his next project, which he's working on whenever he has a free moment during awards season. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby How Oscar-nominated 'Conclave' editor Nick Emerson set up the film's twist ending 'Porcelain War' directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev on their inspiring story of art and resistance in Ukraine How the Oscar-nominated 'Nosferatu' makeup and hair team, costume designer created Count Orlok and his doomed love Click here to read the full article.
Al Bawaba
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
DreamWorks' The Wild Robot clears the Annie Awards with 9 trophies
Published February 9th, 2025 - 11:30 GMT ALBAWABA - DreamWorks Animation's 'The Wild Robot' recently made headlines after receiving a whopping nine trophies at the Annie Awards including "Best Feature," for its spectacular art direction and production. Excluding the best feature, it also copped several awards including best FX, music, feature, editorial, direction, voice acting, character design, production design, and character animation. The Wild Robot was nominated for 10 awards and cleared almost all of them with one loss where voice actor Kit Connor, lost to Lupita Nyong'o. Illumination's "Despicable Me 4" came in second place with just one award for "Best Storyboarding" which was the only category that "The Wild Robot" wasn't nominated for. 'THE WILD ROBOT' won 9 Annie Awards tonight, including Best Feature. • Best FX• Best Music• Best Feature• Best Editorial• Best Direction• Best Voice Acting• Best Character Design• Best Production Design • Best Character Animation — DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 9, 2025 DreamWorks' "The Wild Robot" almost made history but fell short against Pixar's "Coco" which received 11 Annies in 2018. The Annie Awards is known for hosting one of the animation industry's top events, where it celebrates the hard work put into producing beautifully crafted films by industry veterans and indie studios alike. Take for example, "Flow" by Dream Well Studio which received two awards including "Best Feature – Independent" and "Best Writing – Feature," with a minimal budget of €3.5 million ($3.6 million) compared to its $14.9 million in Box Office revenue. (DreamWorks) Pixar's "Inside Out 2" and BBC's "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" were both nominated but left with no wins, despite their prequels receiving 10 Annies in the past. On the contrary, Netflix's Arcane came on top and has continued its streak by copping seven Annies in TV/Media. It received best FX, character animation, direction, music, production design, storyboarding, and editorial. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Annie Awards: ‘The Wild Robot' Wins Best Feature & 7 Others; ‘Arcane' Goes 7-For-7; ‘Flow' Wins Indie Film Prize: Full List
We have an official front-runner for the Animated Feature Oscar. The Wild Robot flat-out dominated the 52nd annual Annie Awards on Saturday night, won eight trophies: Best Direction for Chris Sanders — his fifth career Annie — FX, Character Animation, Character Design, Production Design, Editorial, Music and Voice Acting for Lupita Nyong'o as lead character Roz. She was not present at UCLA's Royce Hall to accept. More from Deadline 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More The 2025 Oscars: Everything We Know So Far About The Nominations, Ceremony, Date & Host 'The Wild Robot's Chris Sanders Paints Picture Of Film's "Completely New Direction" In Score & Sound Design - Contenders Film: The Nominees See the full winners list spanning film, TV, video games and more below. Since the Best Animated Feature Oscar category was launched in 2002, 14 of the 22 winners of the Annies' top feature prize – and seven of the past 12 – went on to claim the golden statuette. But last year bucked the trend as the Academy Award went to Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron over Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which dominated the 2024 Annies with seven nods. Wild Robot's stunning run was interrupted when Sideshow/Janus Films' Flow won for Best Writing – Feature. The indie pic's win in the category is even more interesting in that it contain zero dialogue. Latvia's International Feature Oscar Entry later added Best Feature – Independent to its tally. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the 10th film in the 57-year-old franchise and the first of a planned trilogy, won for Best Character Animation – Live Action. Despicable Me 4 later become the only other feature to win an Annie on Saturday, taking Best Storyboarding. Wander to Wonder took the Short Subject prize. The announcer noted that this was the pic's 41st awards win already, and it also is in the running for the Oscar and BAFTA. Meanwhile, Netflix and Riot Games' now-wrapped series Arcane came in with a small-screen-leading seven noms — and it dominated by winning all of its categories: Best Direction for TV/Media, Storyboarding, FX, Production Design, Editing, Music and Character Animation. The videogame-based series, which recently ended its second and final season, won nine Annies and an Animated Series Emmy for its 2021 first season, so it ends with an eye-popping 16 for its two seasons. RELATED: The TV Voice Acting award went to Paula Pell for voicing Paula Dream Productions. The Inside Out series set in the time between the two feature films later added Best TV/Media – Limited Series. Bob's Burgers took the Annie Best TV/Media – Mature, and The Tiny Chef Show won for Preschool Series. For much of the night, Arcane and The Wild Robot were the only titles with multiple Annie Awards, but Flow got two as did Dream Productions and Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, for Best Children's Series and Character Design. The latter was the second consecutive win in the category for Jose Lopez. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur won three Annies last year. Later, Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman won Best Writing TV/Media for DreamWorks Animation's Orion and the Dark. It is his first career Annie, and the award was accepted by series director Sean Charmatz. At about 8:45 p.m., an alarm sounded, the ceremony and livestream were halted and Royce Hall was cleared. After a 15-minute delay that including two fire alarms, the audience returned to their seats, and the show continued. The Annies tweeted that the interruption was due to 'a fire alarm emergency,' but no other explanation was given. The announcer later called it 'the Annies' first-ever intermission,' RELATED: The show opened with a performance the Los Angeles County Firefighters' Fife & Drum Band. The first presenter, Steve Buscemi, thanked, congratulated and honored the first responders who risked it all to help save lives, property and pets during last month's devastating wildfires. Turns out Buscemi was an FDNY firefighter himself years ago, and a picture of him in uniform was shown. The now-actor, who is active in the voice-over community, said the photo might have been from when he 'was auditioning for the Village People.' The Annies doubled as a fundraiser for AnimAID, which was launched to raise and distribute funds for wildfire relief. After the ceremony, it was announced that more than $107,000 had been raised. You can scan the QCode here to donate: The evening's first Juried Award, The June Foray Award, went to Women in Animation. Named for the Annie Awards founder, the award is presented to people who have made a positive impact on the animation industry. Alberto Menache later received the Ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement, and ASIFA-Hollywood's Special Achievement Award went to the book Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt's Animated Films. The Winsor McCay Awards for lifetime achievement were presented to Aaron Blaise, Normand Rogerand the daughter and granddaughter of Eunice Macaulay, who died in 2013 at 90. Late last month, ASIFA-Hollywood revealed the Animation Educators' Forum Hall of Fame Class of 2025. They are Leonard Maltin, John Canemaker and Ivan Sutherland along with the late Howard Beckerman, Nelbertina 'Nellie' Chouinar, Thornton 'T' Hee, Edwin G. Lutz, Don Perro and Frank Terry. Here are the winners at the 2025 Annie Awards: BEST FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks Animation BEST FEATURE – INDEPENDENTFlowSacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well Studio BEST DIRECTION – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationChris Sanders BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisode: The Dirt Under Your NailsA Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixArnaud Delord, Pascal Charrue, Bart Maunoury BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATUREDespicable Me 4IlluminationHabib Louati BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisode: Killing is a CycleA Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixJoséphine Meis BEST TV/MEDIA – LIMITED SERIESDream ProductionsEpisode: A Night to RememberPixar Animation Studios BEST TV/MEDIA – MATUREBob's BurgersEpisode: They Slug Horses, Don't They?20th Television Animation BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDRENMarvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Episode: The Molecular LevelFlying Bark Productions, Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded Television BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOLThe Tiny Chef ShowEpisode: Tiny Chef's Spooky Stump SpectacularImagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions and Nickelodeon Productions BEST WRITING – FEATUREFlowTake Five, Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well StudioGints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIAOrion and the DarkSpecial ProductionDreamWorks AnimationCharlie Kaufman BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationLupita Nyong'o (Character: Roz) BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIADream Productions Episode: Out of BodyPixar Animation StudiosPaula Pell (Character: Paula) BEST EDITORIAL – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationMary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian Parker BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisode: Pretend Like It's the First TimeA Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixNazim Meslem, Gilad Carmel, Roberto Fernandez BEST FX – FEATUREThe Wild RobotProduction Company: DreamWorks AnimationFX Production Company: DreamWorks AnimationDerek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve Avoujageli BEST FX – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisode: The Dirt Under Your NailsProduction Company: A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixFX Production Company: Fortiche StudioGuillaume Degroote, Aurélien Ressencourt, Adam Bachiri, Guillaume Zaouche, Jérôme Dupré BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationFabio Lignini BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisodes: Killing Is A Cycle, Heavy Is the Crown, Finally Got the Name Right, The Message Hidden Within the Pattern, The Dirt Under Your Nails, Pretend Like It's the First Time, Blisters and BedrockA Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixTom Gouill BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTIONKingdom of the Planet of the ApesProduction Company: 20th Century StudiosFX Production Company: Wētā FXChristian Kickenweitz, Aidan Martin, Allison Orr, Radiya Alam, Howard Sly BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAMENevaNomada StudioNomada Studio Animation Team BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationGenevieve Tsai BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIAMarvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Episode: The Molecular LevelDisney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy ProductionsJose Lopez BEST MUSIC – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationKris Bowers BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisode: The Dirt Under Your NailsA Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixRyan Jillian Santiago, Alexander Seaver, Simon Wilcox BEST SPONSOREDFuzzy FeelingsPassion Pictures Hungry Man BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTIONOrion and the DarkDreamWorks Animation BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATUREThe Wild RobotDreamWorks AnimationRaymond Zibach, Ritchie Sacilioc BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIAArcaneEpisode: The Dirt Under Your NailsA Riot Games and Fortiche Production for NetflixArnaud-Loris Baudry, Julien Georgel, Faustine Dumontier, Charlotte O'Neil BEST SHORT SUBJECTWander to WonderCirce Films, Kaap Holland Film, Les Productions de Milou, Beast Animation, Blink Industries & Pictanovo BEST STUDENT FILMAdiósStudent Director: José PratsStudent Producer: Bernardo AngelettiSchool: National Film and Television School JURIED AWARDS The Winsor McCay AwardsAaron BlaiseEunice MacaulayNormand Roger June Foray AwardWomen in Animation Ub Iwerks AwardAlberto Menache Special Achievement AwardDirecting at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt's Animated Films Best of Deadline 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 'The Apprentice' Oscar Nominees Sebastian Stan & Jeremy Strong On Why It's 'More Of A Horror Movie' With "Monstrous Egos"
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Annie Awards Set to Honor 2024's Animation Achievements, Aid Community Hit by Fires
The board of ASIFA-Hollywood, the organization behind the 52nd annual Annie Awards, pondered, like many other organizers behind events on the awards season calendar, whether the show should be postponed or scaled back because of the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles in early January. Many members of the animation community are among those who've been severely impacted. 'We represent the animation community and it's really important to us, especially at this time, that we support them a thousand percent,' says ASIFA-Hollywood executive director Aubry Mintz. And after much discussion, the board decided that the show will go on, albeit with a somewhat more somber tone and featuring the announcement of efforts to consolidate resources and support for those in the community dealing with various (and in many cases multiple) losses. More from Variety 'The Wild Robot' Leads 2025 Annie Awards Nominations With 10 Nods 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' Wraps Up Top Feature Prize at 51st Annie Awards Dina Sherman, the Voice of the Annies, Reflects on 20 Years of Animated Awards 'We discussed this with the board: 'What are the implications if we go forward with the Annies versus pause it or extend it?' And the majority felt that more than anything people want to feel like they have the community,' he says. 'That's why it's crucial that we keep it going. The tone will change, but it will feel more supportive.' One major way it will be supportive is via a fundraising venture that will be announced during the Annies. 'We are still learning about our colleagues who have been evacuated, and those who have lost their homes,' Mintz says. 'We're pleased to report that we have just approved a fundraising initiative that will have substantial reach into our community. Together we will work to achieve our goal of helping provide much-needed financial support for those who have lost so much. Animation is a strong, tight-knit community, and we will unite to support each other through these difficult times.' ASIFA-Hollywood is collaborating with AnimAID, a group of industry executives, producers and artists, to raise and distribute funds. This group was created specifically as a response to the animation community being affected and devastated by the fires, Mintz explains. 'Both groups are working together on the details and parameters. ASIFA will be the nonprofit that people can donate to and the other group will be facilitating the distribution of the funds.' One of the things the ASIFA team had to think about in regard to the show was a possible venue change. At one point, Royce Hall, on the campus of UCLA, was under an evacuation warning due to one of the fires. 'Are we going to have a venue? How does the community feel having been through this? I mean, there was a while when many of us as individuals were worried we were going to have to evacuate,' notes show producer and ASIFA vice president Frank Gladstone. Fortunately, the venue is good to go and the process of putting on the show is moving forward. This year, 'Inside Out 2,' 'Kung Fu Panda 4,' 'That Christmas,' 'The Wild Robot,' 'Ultraman Rising' and 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl' will be vying for the best feature trophy, while 'Chicken for Linda!,' 'Flow,' 'Kensuke's Kingdom,' 'Look Back,' 'Mars Express' and 'Memoir of a Snail' are competing in the best independent feature category. The Annies nominations recognize all aspects of animation, including voice acting. This is Mintz's first year as ASIFA-Hollywood's executive director, taking over the role from Gladstone, who retired from the post last year but is continuing to produce the annual awards gala. Mintz says he's thankful to have Gladstone's guidance as he takes on the role. His main focus has been introducing himself to the various studios and companies that help fund ASIFA's initiatives outside of the organization's flagship Annies. His meetings have been promising. 'It shows me and reminds me how important animation is to the community.' The Annies will honor achievement across 32 categories, including best animated feature and best feature – independent. Nominees for best feature are 'Inside Out 2,' 'Kung Fu Panda 4,' 'That Christmas,' 'The Wild Robot,' 'Ultraman: Rising' and 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.' Contending for best feature – independent are 'Chicken for Linda!,' 'Flow,' 'Kensuke's Kingdom,' 'Look Back,' 'Mars Express' and Memoir of a Snail.' The Annies will be held on Saturday, Feb. 8, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. The pre-event reception begins at 4:30 p.m. and the awards ceremony starts at 7 p.m. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Grammy Predictions, From Beyoncé to Kendrick Lamar: Who Will Win? Who Should Win? What's Coming to Netflix in February 2025
