Feb 4, 2018

Commentary: Annie Award of the #Metro Era

When your first award presenter of the evening is a man charged with rape, it's a fair indication of where the rest of the evening is headed.

By the time the 45th annual ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards had concluded last night, 14 out of the 30 awards had been presented to projects that were initiated and/or greenlit by people accused of sexually predatory behavior. It wasn't the right time to acknowledge that inconvenient fact because it never is the right time in the animation industry.

Adding to the theme of the evening, no individual woman won any of the 21 achievement categories. Only six women won as part of teams, compared to 46 total male winners.

The Annies' celebration of male figures and its lack of award-winning women are not unrelated: the institutional failures that allow predatory men to thrive in the animation industry are often the same ones that keep women from advancing in the business and being recognized by their peers. (The biggest wins of the evening for women were Nora Twomey's The Breadwinner, and a Winsor McCay Award for filmmakers Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. Tellingly, all three of those women are international filmmakers.)

Putting American industry females in the background at the Annie Awards – a recurring pattern at the show – is one of the more visible manifestations of the industry's attitudes toward women, but to see it happen last night against an intimidating backdrop of winning projects blessed by sex harassers and assaulters set a new low for the Annie Awards.

The animation industry has always operated in a bubble of its own, immune to the pressures and social trends of the larger Hollywood industry of which it is a part. While that can sometimes be a good thing, the industry's willful disregard for falling in line with the rest of the filmmaking community backfired last night. Perhaps this will be the kick in the pants the organization needs to finally address its boys' club award ceremony and to evolve the Annies into an awards show for everyone who works in this business.

The full list of Annie Award winners are below.

Best Animated Feature

Best Animated Feature-Independent

Best Animated Special Production

Best Animated Short Subject

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Best Student Film

Animated Effects in an Animated Production

Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production

Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Character Animation in a Video Game

Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

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

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

Special Achievement Award

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

Certificate of Merit