Up has reclaimed what many regard as last year’s monumental and unwarranted let down with two top wins at the 37th Annual Annie Awards!
Pete Docter was named Best Director by ASIFA-Hollywood for his latest film which also took home Best Feature for Pixar! "It has been a great year for animation." said Docter as he accepted animation’s highest honor. And he’s right — more on that below.
Pixar’s collection of Golden Zoetropes now includes:
• Best Animated Feature: Up — Pixar Animation Studios
• Directing in a Feature Production: Pete Docter — Up — Pixar Animation Studios
• William "Bill" Reeves was also awarded the Ub Iwerks Juried Award by none other than Pixar President Ed Catmull for innovation in animation!
Although Up was nominated nine times and won what most would consider the top prizes, Pixar Animation Studios‘ latest still wasn’t awarded the most statuettes of the night. In fact, two other excellent animated films, Laika’s Coraline and WDAS’s The Princess and the Frog, went home with three awards each. Like Docter said, 2009 was a year filled with wide success in animation, so it’s not surprising that individual achievement prizes went all around recognizing diverse mediums from stop-motion to hand-drawn.
As far as studios go, Walt Disney Animation took the cake with six wins; three for ‘Princess’ and another three for Prep & Landing. DreamWorks followed closely behind with five wins from a wide variety of media including their sole feature film of 2009, a couple of holiday spin-offs and a TV show. But the most excitement is sure to come straight from The Walt Disney Studios which, combined with Pixar and WDAS, now has eight more Annies to celebrate!
Congratulations to Pete Docter, Bill Reeves, and the Up crew on this fine recognition by the animation community! Check out the rest of the deserving Annie Award winners and nominees here. Next stop — the Oscars, and it should be a great show if this is any kind of indicator…
What do you think about the 37th Annual Annie Awards winners? Do you agree with the diverse picks? In your opinion, who should/shouldn’t have won?
Last modified: February 6, 2010
Yay for two very deserving wins!
It has been a very strong year in animation, so it’s fitting that they would honor some of the other great films that came out this year as well. 🙂
Congrats to the Pixar crew!
oh! And what an honor!! Certainly makes up for the lack of “Best Director” nomination at the Oscars. Good job Pixar!
—Leirin
I still don’t understand why it wasn’t even NOMINATED for Best Art Direction. The job Ricky Nierva and his team did on the film should not only have been nominated, but should have won—as there’s not a better looking film—animated or otherwise—from 2009.
Congrats to Pixar on the wins, though!