Cartoon Saloon’s ‘My Father’s Dragon’ Cleans Up At Irish Animation Awards

The 2023 Irish Animation Awards took place over the weekend in Galway, the first time that the ceremony has been held in person since 2019.

Cartoon Saloon’s My Father’s Dragon was the big winner at this year’s awards, taking five prizes including best Irish feature.

Directed by Nora Twomey, the Netflix original film is based on Ruth Stiles Gannett’s Newbery Medal-winning kids’ book of the same name. The script was written by Inside Out screenwriter Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) who adapted the screen story with John Morgan.

From the tv categories, Igloo Animation’s kids’ series Tales from Dún Draíochta and Sixteen South’s Odo both picked up two prizes, with the former winning best animated kids series.

Speaking about the Irish animation industry’s impressive growth in recent years, Animation Ireland’s chief executive Ronan McCabe said in a release: “It has been yet another superb and record-breaking year for Irish animation with 53 productions nominated. The sector is continuing to power ahead both in terms of the quality of the work being produced, which you can certainly see from the awards ceremony and the number of productions being delivered.”

2023 Irish Animation Awards

Best Animated Preschool Series

• Circle Square, Kavaleer Productions, Wyndley Animation

Best Animated Kids Series 6+

• Tales from Dún Draíochta, Igloo Animations, Trevor Courtney

Kids Choice Preschool

• Fia’s Fairies, Little Moon Animation, Vanessa Robinson, Eoghan Garvey

Kids Choice 6+

• The Cuphead Show!, Lighthouse Studios, Ruchi Shah – Paul Madden – Cormac Slevin

Best Animated Short Film

• Soul Office, TAUNT

Best International Short Film

• The Stranger, Jihye Jung, Jusuk Lee, Hyunju Kim

Best Writer for Preschool Animation

• Odo – “Doodle Song,” Ishai Ravid

Best Writer for an Animated Series

• Tales from Dún Draíochta- Lusmore and the Rapping Fairy, Trevor Courtney

Best Animation for Apps, Games, and Interactive

• Waggle, Katie McNeice, Maeve MacNamara, Jim Pipe

Best Art Direction and Design

• Bardo, Aisling Conroy, Alan Holly, Cora McKenna

Best Director of an Animated Series

• Karma’s World, Bronagh O’Hanlon, Pete McEvoy, Brian O’Brien

Best Animation Sequence

• The Cuphead Show!, Julius Mingi, Dindo Santos, Gian Carla Atienza

Best Music

• My Father’s Dragon, Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna

Best Sound Design

• Memento Mori, Ed Costello, Ryan Quinn

Best Irish Feature or Special

• My Father’s Dragon, Cartoon Saloon

Best Innovation in Animation

• Face2Face – “Charles & Camilla,” Retinize & Flickerpix

Best Irish IP

• Odo – “Reggie,” Colin Williams

Best Student Film

• Small Makings of a Storm, Avery Angle

Best Editing

• My Father’s Dragon, Richie Cody, Darren Holmes

Best Storyboarding

• My Father’s Dragon, Giovanna Ferrari

Best VFX

• My Father’s Dragon, Cartoon Saloon

Outstanding Contribution to the Industry

• Teresa McGrane