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47th Annie Awards Honor Kyoto Animation Victims in 'In Memoriam' Segment

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood announced the winners for its 47th Annual Annie Awards on Saturday. No anime or Japanese video games won awards in which they were nominated.

The awards ceremony honored the victims of the horrific fire at Kyoto Animation's 1st Studio building during its "In Memoriam" segment. The ceremony displayed the names of 35 of the 36 victims who died from the fire with the words "In an arson attack at the Kyoto Animation Studio on July 18 and in the days that followed, thirty-six members of our animation community were lost." The segment also showed footage from the studio's "Baja no Studio" short (pictured at right), which was the only video or image shown during the segment.

As previously announced, the awards presented late director Satoshi Kon with the prestigious Winsor McCay Award. The ASIFA-Hollywood Board of Directors select the winners for "their exemplary industry careers." Kon's frequent colleague and Madhouse, MAPPA, and Studio M2 founder Masao Maruyama accepted the award on Kon's behalf, with president of Production I.G. USA Maki Terashima-Furuta interpreting Maruyama's speech.

Madhouse's Okko's Inn, Trigger and XFLAG's Promare, and Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You films were nominated in the "Best Indie Feature" category, but I Lost My Body took the award. Weathering With You was also nominated for "Best FX for Feature" but Frozen 2 won the award.

Alita: Battle Angel and Pokémon Detective Pikachu were both nominated for the "Best Character Animation - Live Action" award, but Avengers: Endgame won the award.

Additionally, Kingdom Hearts III was nominated for "Best Character Animation - Video Game," but Unruly Heroes won the award. Masahito Kobayashi was nominated for "Best Direction - TV/Media" for Rilakkuma & Kaoru, but Alonso Ramirez Ramos won the award for Disney Mickey Mouse. Makoto Shinkai was nominated for "Best Direction - Feature" for Weathering With You, but Sergio Pablos won the award for Klaus (Klaus also won "Best Feature"). Shinkai was also nominated for "Best Writing - Feature" for the film, but Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant won for I Lost My Body. Shinichiro Watanabe was nominated for "Best Storyboarding - TV/Media" for Carole & Tuesday, but Kenny Park won the award for Carmen Sandiego.

The Annie Awards recognize outstanding achievement in animation. ASIFA-Hollywood added the Best Animated Independent Feature award for the 2016 awards in order to "recognize not only features in wide release, but also the independent animators, international studios, anime and special productions that might not otherwise get the attention they deserve." Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai film won the award in 2019.

Source: Annie Awards