37th Annual Annie Award Nominations Announced

Today, December 1st, 2009, the Annie Award nominations were announced. These are awards for animation, for both theatrical features and TV. Last year there was a clean sweep of the awards in the feature film categories, by DreamWorks Animation’s film Kung Fu Panda - surprisingly shutting WALL•E out - and causing some fans of the other films to be upset. This year, the three films in a position to hold most wins are predictably three of the biggest animated films of the year, Up, Coraline, and The Princess and the Frog. We have reviews of the first two already, and our thoughts on TPatF will be up opening day.

One of the categories I always like to watch is that for music. While I am not going to post all of the nominees for each category the following is who’s nominated for music:

Music in a Television Production

Michael Giacchino “Prep and Landing” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Kevin Kiner “Star Wars: The Clone Wars “Weapons Factory” – Lucasfilm

Animation Ltd.

Guy Moon “The Fairly OddParents: “Wishology- The Big Beginning” –

Nickelodeon

Music in a Feature Production

Bruno Coulais “Coraline” – Laika

Michael Giacchino “Up” – Pixar Animation Studios

Joe Hisaishi “Ponyo” – Studio Ghibli

John Powell “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” – Blue Sky Studios

While they are all strong contenders, I could easily see Michael Giacchino taking both of these awards - and would love to see him do it. If not, I would probably say Kevin Kiner for TV, and for Feature it could be a toss up for any of them, but possible Bruno Coulais for Coraline?

To finish, I will leave you with these stats.

For the animated feature categories, the following films have recieved nominations:

Coraline - 10 noms.

Up - 9 noms.

The Princess and the Frog - 8 noms.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - 4 noms.

Fantastic Mr. Fox - 3 noms.

Monsters vs. Aliens - 3 noms.

9 - 2 noms.

Astro Boy - 2 noms.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - 2 noms.

Ponyo - 2 noms.

The Secret of Kells - 1 noms.

I hope to have some interviews in the coming months with some more of the nominees here, but for now you can read my three part interview with Ronnie del Carmen and Peter Sohn, who are both nominated for Best Storyboarding for a Feature Film, for Up, here. For a complete list of all of the nominees, and past winners, visit the Annie Awards site here.

-E. Corrado