Animation's biggest night, the 53rd Annual Annie Awards, where industry honors are handed out by the LA branch of the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), took place at Royce Hall at UCLA on Saturday, February 21st. The night turned into a full-on coronation for one ubiquitous title: Netflix/Sony Pictures Animation's KPop Demon Hunters.
Starting off the festivities was comedian/actor Craig Robinson, who put his musical timbre to work at the piano, stunning the late-comers who wished he wasn't talking about them. After setting a fun, lively vibe, Robinson got to the first award of the night.
However, it was the runaway global phenom, Netflix/Sony Pictures Animation's KPop Demon Hunters that rocked the award show, going 10 for 10 in each category it was up for. This shut out a stacked lineup that included Disney's Zootopia 2, DreamWorks' The Bad Guys 2, Disney/Pixar's Elio and Gkids' Little Amelie or the Character of Rain.
The musical, which was directed by Korean/Canadian Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, also won Best Direction, Best Music, Best Editorial, Best Writing and Best Voice Acting for actor Arden Cho, who voices Rumi. The film also swept through all the technical categories at the Annies, winning Best FX, Best Character Animation, Best Character Design and Best Production Design.
What made the sweep feel so decisive and unwavering was its complete dominance across the filmmaking landscape. Last year's The Wild Robot, from DreamWorks Animation, also dominated the awards show, winning nine out of nine trophies - also impressive. However, KPop Demon Hunters leaped onto the map with little fanfare last summer, while later turning out to be an overnight sensation for Netflix, becoming the streamer's most watched movie of all time, with almost 500,000 million views.
Others notables that won were Adult Swim's critically acclaimed Common Side Effects, which took home four awards: Best TV/Media Mature Category, Best Direction, Writing and Editorial. Showrunners Steve Hely and Joe Bennett were on hand to take the honors.
It was followed by Netflix's wildly popular anthology series Love, Death + Robots and Pixar's Disney+ original Win or Lose, with three wins each.
Other key trophies went to Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical (Best Special Production) and Aaron Blaise's Snow Bear (Best Short Subject).
Hulu's The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball won Best TV/Media Children honors; and Disney+'s Win or Lose took the Best Limited Series prize. Wow Lisa, an engaging Spanish-language Chilean show, which combines 3D characters placed within scale-models and crafted back grounds, won the Annie for Best Preschool Series.
On the independent feature side of the business, Ugo Bienvenu's critically acclaimed Arco, the hand-drawn French feature, beat out Sylvain Chomet's endearing A Magnificent Life, Roy & Arturo Ambriz's weirdly compelling I Am Frankelda, Han Ji-won's Lost in Starlight and Mamoru Hosoda's Scarlet.
ASIFA Hollywood also presented Lifetime Achievement honors, with the prestigious Winsor McCay Award going to Dutch writer/director Michaël Dudok de Wit (pictured). Writers/directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, as well as Chris Sanders, were also recognized.
Animation and live-action producer Sandy Rabins, who became a driving force behind ASIFA-Hollywood's AnimAID, which provides assistance and support for those in the animation industry affected by the catastrophic LA wildfires, received the June Foray Award for their "significant and benevolent impact to the animation community."
The Ub Iwerks Award, for technical advancement affecting the animation industry, went to Japanese company Wacom, manufacturer of the Cintiq graphics tablet, which has become an industry standard for professional 2D animation, storyboarding and concept art.
The animation fair LightBox Expo received a special achievement award for bringing "the creative animation community of filmmakers together with animation students and fans."
The ASIFA-Hollywood Merit Award is given by the board of directors to individuals for current and on-going service to the organization. This year it went to Jeffrey New and Haley Mirren Douthit.
If the Annies are the precursor of the Oscars, KPop Demon Hunters will be the one to try and beat. Good luck!