Annie Awards 2020: Netflix’s ‘Klaus’ and ‘I Lost My Body’ Take Top Animation Honors
Bill Desowitz
Animation newbie Netflix was the big winner Saturday night at ASIFA-Hollywood’s 47th annual Annie Awards at UCLA’s Royce Hall, with “Klaus” and “I Lost My Body” taking top honors for Best Feature and Best Indie Feature.
In fact, Sergio Pablos’ innovative 2D Santa origin story led the pack with seven Annies (including directing, character animation, character design, production design, storyboarding, and editing), while Jérémy Clapin’s existential French thriller about a severed hand took home three awards (including writing and the exquisite score by Dan Levy).
Both “Klaus” and “I Lost My Body” are competing against Pixar’s frontrunning “Toy Story 4” in the Oscar race, which was blanked at the Annies. But then so was everything else, except Disney’s “Frozen 2” (shut out of the Oscar race), which earned two Annies for Feature FX and Voice Acting for Josh Gad’s lovable Olaf.
Disney was also victorious with “Avengers: Endgame” taking Best Live Action Character Animation (from Weta Digital). This provides a boost for Marvel’s VFX Oscar hopes, with Wednesday’s VES Awards as the next big hurdle.
Winners of the Winsor McCay Award went to Satoshi Kon (posthumously), Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist; stop-motion director Henry Selick (“Coraline,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas”); and Disney directors Ron Clements & John Musker (“Moana,” “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid”). The June Foray Award was presented to Jeanette Bonds, animator and co-founder of GLAS Animation; and the Ub Iwerks Award went to computer scientist Jim Blinn, (JPL pre-encounter animations for the Voyager project).
Here’s the full list of nominations.
Best Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Best Indie Feature
“I Lost My Body” Xilam for Netflix
Best Direction – Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Director: Sergio Pablos
Best Writing – Feature
“I Lost My Body” Xilam for Netflix
Writer: Jérémy Clapin Writer: Guillaume Laurant
Best Character Animation – Animated Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Animation Supervisor: Sergio Martins Character: Alva
Best Character Design – Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Character Designer: Torsten Schrank Character: All Characters
Best Production Design – Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Production Design: Szymon Biernaki Production Design: Marcin Jakubowski
Best Storyboarding – Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Storyboard Artist: Sergio Pablos
Best Editorial – Feature
“Klaus” Netflix Presents A Production of The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine
Pablo García Revert
Best Music – Feature
“I Lost My Body” Xilam for Netflix Composer: Dan Levy
Best FX for Feature
“Frozen 2” Walt Disney Animation Studios
Benjamin Fiske: Benjamin Fiske Alex Moaveni: Alex Moaveni Jesse Erickson: Jesse Erickson Dimitre Berberov: Dimitre Berberov Kee Nam Suong: Kee Nam Suong
Best Character Animation – Live Action
“Avengers: Endgame” Weta Digital
Animation Supervisor: Sidney Kombo- Kintombo
Best Voice Acting – Feature
“Frozen 2” Walt Disney Animation Studios Josh Gad: Josh Gad Character: Olaf
Best Special Production
“How to Train Your Dragon Homecoming” DreamWorks Animation
Best Short Subject
“Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days” Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs
Best VR
“Bonfire” Baobab Studios
Best Commercial
“The Mystical Journey of Jimmy Page’s ‘59” Telecaster Nexus Studios
Best TV/Media – Preschool
Ask the Storybots” Episode: “Why Do We Have To Recycle?” JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix
Best TV/Media – Children
“Disney Mickey Mouse” Episode: “Carried Away” Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel
Best TV/Media – General Audience
“BoJack Horseman” Episode: “The Client” Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
Best Student Film
“The Fox & The Pigeon” Michelle Chua
Best FX for TV/Media
“Love, Death & Robots” Episode: “The Secret War Blur” for Netflix
FX Artist: Viktor Németh FX Artist: Szabolcs Illés FX Artist: Ádám Sipos FX Artist: Vladimir Zhovna
Best Character Animation – TV/Media
“His Dark Materials” Episode: 8 BBC Studios
Lead Animator: Aulo Licinio Character: Iroek
Best Character Animation – Video Game
“Unruly Heroes” Magic Design Studios
Character Animator: Sebastien Parodi Character: Heroes Kid version, Underworld NPC Lead Animator: Nicolas Leger Character: Heroes (Wukong, Kihong, Sandmonk, Sanzang), All enemies (except Underworld levels) and cinematics
Best Character Design – TV/Media
“Carmen Sandiego” Episode: “The Chasing Paper” Caper Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and DHX Media for Netflix
Character Designer: Keiko Murayama Character: Carmen Sandiego, Paper Star, Player, Shadowsan, Chief, Julia Argent, Chase Devineaux
Best Direction – TV/Media
“Disney Mickey Mouse” Episode: “For Whom the Booth Tolls” Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel
Director: Alonso Ramirez Ramos
Best Music – TV/Media
“Love, Death & Robots” Episode: “Sonnie’s Edge” Blur for Netflix
Composer/Lyricist: Rob Cairns
Best Production Design – TV/Media
“Love, Death & Robots” Episode: “The Witness” Blur for Netflix
Production Design: Alberto Mielgo
Best Storyboarding – TV/Media
“Carmen Sandiego” Episode: “Becoming Carmen Sandiego: Part 1” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and DHX Media for Netflix
Storyboard Artist: Kenny Park
Best Voice Acting – TV/Media
“Bob’s Burgers” Episode: “Roamin’ Bob-iday” 20th Century FOX / Bento Box Entertainment
Cast: H. Jon Benjamin Character: Bob
Best Writing – TV/Media
“Tuca & Bertie” Episode: “The Jelly Lakes” Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
Writer: Shauna McGarry
Best Editorial – TV/Media
“Love, Death & Robots” Episode: “Alternate Histories” Blur for Netflix
Bo Juhl Nominee: Stacy Auckland Nominee: Valerian Zamel
