Pixar wins big at the Annie Awards

Awards Season is currently in full swing, with the Oscars airing at the end of the month. While the Oscars are notorious (among other things) for the lackluster treatment they afford animated features, the Annie Awards are solely dedicated to the medium and the hundreds of artists responsible for animated films. Directors of animated films are also nominated, unlike the Oscars.
The 43rd Annie Awards were held last night, and not surprisingly, Pixar took home plenty of awards. Inside Out was the big winner with ten! The ten include best animated feature, best writing (Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley), and a best voice acting prize for Phyllis Smith, who played Sadness. Inside Out also won for character animation, character design, directing (Pete Docter), music (Michael Giacchino), production design, and storyboarding.
While Pixar’s other 2015 film, The Good Dinosaur, was overlooked at the Oscars, it rightly won the award for animated effects in an animated production. It was too much to hope for a best cinematography nod at the Academy Awards, so recognition at the Annies is surely appreciated.
“Sanjay’s Super Team” is the only Pixar production that didn’t win. The award for best animated short subject went instead to Don Hertzfeldt’s bizarre and lovely “World of Tomorrow”. Maybe “Sanjay” isn’t a favorite for the Oscar, but that hardly matters when discussing the film’s groundbreaking and artistic merits.
Congratulations to the cast and crew of Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur for their much deserved wins!