Annie Awards 2019 Winners: ‘Spider-Verse’ Wins 7 Awards Including Best Feature; Netflix Sweeps Series Awards

Sony Pictures Animation made a statement Saturday night at ASIFA-Hollywood’s 46th annual Annie Awards. With Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Sony studio won the Annie for Best Animated Feature for the first time in its 17-year history.

Not only that, Spider-Verse went seven for seven, winning every category in which it was nominated, including the feature animation category prizes for directing, writing, character animation, character design, production design, and editorial. If there was any doubt about the most exceptional American animated feature of 2018, the Annie Award voters set the record straight tonight and gave Spider-Verse a big boost as the film gets set to go before Oscar voters.

In accepting the award for animated feature, Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller implored other artists in the industry to follow their lead and reach beyond the cookie-cutter templates of most feature animation production. Lord said, “Please keep taking risks — they pay off,” while Miller added, “Go out there and break new ground, everybody.”

Spider-Verse’s domination at the Annie Awards is all the more remarkable considering that the film was not considered an awards season frontrunner when the nominations were announced at the beginning of last December, which was before the film had been released theatrically. It certainly wasn’t the most nominated film at the Annies; the two most nominated films were Disney-Pixar’s Incredibles 2, with 11 noms, and Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, with 10. The Disney duo netted just three total awards between them: Incredibles 2 won storyboarding and music, while Ralph was honored for animated effects. (Don’t feel too sorry for the Walt Disney Company though; it still won more Annies tonight than any other company with a total of ten.)

Another big winner tonight was Netflix, which won seven total awards, including all three categories for Animated Television/Broadcast productions: Storybots in the preschool children category, Hilda for the children’s category, and Bojack Horseman for general audience. (And by the way, the Annies is overdue to change the name of these categories too; none of its winners in the television/broadcast categories were actually made for television or broadcast.)

Mercury Filmworks’ Hilda series won two other awards as well — character animation and writing for a tv/broadcast production — making it the most-awarded series of the evening.

Two other current Oscar nominees, both hand-drawn projects, also earned recognition: Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai won the Best Independent Animated Feature prize, while Trevor Jimenez’s short film Weekends took Best Animated Short. And speaking of hand-drawn animation, Mary Poppins Returns also picked up two honors: Best Animated Special Production and Character Animation in a Live Action Production.

Here’s the complete list of winners from the ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles:

Best Animated Feature

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation

Best Animated Feature-Independent

Mirai
Studio Chizu

Best Animated Special Production

Mary Poppins Returns
Walt Disney Studios

Best Animated Short Subject

Weekends
Past Lives Productions

Best Virtual Reality Production

Crow: The Legend
Baobab Studios

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial

Greenpeace “There's a Rang-Tan In My Bedroom”
Passion Animation Studios

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

Ask the StoryBots
Episode: How Do Computers Work?
JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children

Hilda
Episode: Chapter 1: The Hidden People
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

BoJack Horseman
Episode: The Dog Days are Over
Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix

Best Student Film

Best Friend
Nicholas Olivieri, Yi Shen, Juliana de Lucca, Varun Nair, David Feliu

Animated Effects in an Animated Production

Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters
Episode: The Eternal Knight Pt. 2
DreamWorks Animation Television
Visual Effects Supervisor: David M.V. Jones
Overseas FX Supervisor: Vincent Chou
Overseas Lead FX Artist: Clare Yang

Animated Effects in an Animated Feature Production

Ralph Breaks The Internet
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Head of Effects Animation: Cesar Velazquez
Effects Lead: Marie Tollec
Effects Lead: Alexander Moaveni Effects Lead: Peter DeMund Foundation Effects Lead: Ian J. Coony

Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Hilda
Episode: (Various Episodes)
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
Character Animator: Scott Lewis Character: The King, Hilda, Arfur

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Animator: David Han
Character: Multiple

Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Mary Poppins Returns
Walt Disney Pictures
Animators: Chris Sauve, James Baxter, Sandro Cleuzo

Character Animation in a Video Game

GRIS
Nomada Studio
Lead Animator: Adrian Miguel Character: Gris (Cinematics and In-Game)
Lead Animator: Adrian Garcia Character: Gris (Cinematics)
Lead Animator: Adrian Miguel Character: Sombra

Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure
Episode: Freebird
Walt Disney Television Animation
Character Designer: Amanda Jolly Character: Rapunzel Bird, Cassandra Bird, Father Parrot, Special Birds

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Shiyoon Kim : Shiyoon Kim Character: Uncle Aaron, Rio, Peter, Miles, King Pin, Gwen, Aunt May, Goblin, Jefferson

Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Disney Mickey Mouse
Episode: Feed the Birds Disney Television Animation
Director: Eddie Trigueros

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Directors: Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey

Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Disney Mickey Mouse
Episode: Springtime
Disney Television Animation
Composer: Christopher Willis

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Incredibles 2
Pixar Animation Studios
Composer: Michael Giacchino

Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Age of Sail
Episode: n/a
Google Spotlight Stories, Broad Reach Pictures
Production Design: Céline Desrumaux, Jasmin Lai

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Production Design: Justin K. Thompson

Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

(tie)Disney Mickey Mouse
Episode: Carnaval
Disney Television Animation
Storyboard Artist: Ramirez Ramos Alonso

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Episode: Mystic Mayhem
Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Storyboard Artist: Kevin Molina-Ortiz

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Incredibles 2
Pixar Animation Studios
Storyboard Artist: Dean Kelly

Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

BoJack Horseman
Episode: Free Churro
Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix
Voice Actor: Will Arnett
Character: BoJack

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Isle of Dogs
Fox Searchlight Pictures / Indian Paintbrush / American Empirical Pictures
Chief: Bryan Cranston Character: Chief

Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Hilda
Episode: Chapter 8: The Tide Mice
Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks
Writer: Stephanie Simpson

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Writer: Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman

Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Big Hero 6: The Series
Walt Disney Television Animation
Nominee: Charles Jones, Joe Molinari, Dao Le, Vartan Nazarian, David Vazquez

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures Animation
Nominee: Bob Fisher, Andrew Leviton, Vivek Sharma

JURIED AWARDS

Winsor McCay Award – for their career contributions to the art of animation

Ralph Eggleston
Frank Braxton (posthumously)
Andrea Romano

Ub Iwerks Award – for technical advancement in the art of animation

Ton Roosendaal for Blender Open Source Animation Software

June Foray Award – for their significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation

Adam Burke (posthumously)

Certificate of Merit

Jason Jones