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Here's the full list of winners from the 38th annual Annie Awards. DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon sept the awards with 10 trophies including the award for Best Animated Feature, which is what I hoped would happen. That was my favorite animated movie of the year.

Pixar / Disney Boycotted the awards because they feel that the International Animated Film Society voters favor DreamWorks even though Up won the Best Animated Feature award last year. As much as I love Pixar animation, just because they don't win an award doesn't mean it's the end of the world, and I don't see why they feel they need to boycott. Just because they are Pixar doesn't mean every movie they make has to win.

According to THR "two years ago, questions about the voting were raised when Dwa's Kung Fu Panda swept the Annies feature categories, winning ten trophies and shutting out Pixar's Wall-e,...

The Vince Lombardi Trophy wasn't the only piece of hardware handed out this weekend. The 38th annual Annie Awards took place as well with the DreamWorks film How to Train Your Dragon sweeping many of the regular awards (which was to be expected with Disney/Pixar boycotting the awards [1] because of judging procedures they feel favor DreamWorks.) The highlight of the night, however, was when director Brad Bird was awarded one of three Windsor McCay Awards for career achievement (The others went to Eric Goldberg and Matt Groening). Bird couldn't be there to accept in person so he video taped an acceptance speech from the Vancouver set of Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Most of the video package highlighted Bird's incredibly varied history in animation (including The Simpsons, The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and more) but then things take a turn for the worse. Check it out after the jump...

The Annie Awards, Animation's Highest Honor, went all the way for DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon!" The fun, animated film, originally received 15 nominations and won 10 trophies including Best Animated Feature.

Given by the International Animated Film Society, the 38th annual Annie Awards was not without controversy. Apparently, Disney and Pixar announced they would no longer participate in the annual awards because of their concerns over how the event is judged.

The studios claimed the Annie Awards have always been slighted towards DreamWorks Animation. And this year, both DreamWorks film ("How to Train Your Dragon") and TV ("Kung Fu Panda Holiday") topped the Annie Awards.

"Dragon," featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrara, Jonah Hill, and Craig Ferguson, beat Annie contenders such as Universal's "Despicable Me," Disney's "Tangled," Sony Pictures Classics' "The Illusionist," and Pixar's "Toy Story 3" for best animated feature. (Check out...

With awards season is underway comes the 38th Annual Annie Award nominations, which recognize the year’s best work in animation. Since the creation of the animation-specific Oscar category in 2001, the Annies have predicted the Academy Award winner every year except 2006 and 2008.

Unfortunately, the award has been tainted by controversy after CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly bought each DreamWorks Animation employee a membership in the International Animated Film Society, Asifa-Hollywood, skewing the voting in the studio’s favor. This likely resulted in a surprise sweep by DreamWorks Animations’ Kung Fu Panda at the Annies in 2008-2009 over Pixar’s eventual Oscar winner, Wall-e.

Disney Studios has since pulled its official support of the event and submissions for the awards, though individual animators are able to submit their films themselves. As a result, the rules were changed for individual achievement categories, but Disney sought a neutral committee of animators from every studio to propose and approve guidelines.

The International Animated Film Society, Asifa-Hollywood, announced nominations today for the 38th Annual Annie Awards™ recognizing the year’s best in the field of animation including best animated feature, television production, commercials, short subjects, video games and outstanding individual achievements.

Two years ago, Kung-Fu Panda swept the awards over Wall-e pushing Disney and Pixar to withdraw from the organization and making everyone else wonder if there is any point in caring anymore about the ceremony. Toy Story 3 and Tangled did get Best Picture nominations, but DreamWorks (who pretty much run the show) lead the nominees.

According to /film, Disney’s reason for withdrawing was rooted in the organization’s very loose membership requirements and the fact that DreamWorks seemed actively working to stack the deck in the studio’s favour. Disney-Pixar president Ed Catmull said earlier this year,

“After more than a year of discussions with the Asifa board,...

The full list of nominations for the 38th Annie Awards were announced today with Dreamworks’s How to Train your Dragon gathering up the majority of nominations including Best Feature, Animation, Character Design and Voice Work for Gerard Butler and Jay Baruchel, as well as Directing nominations for Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.

Pixar’s Up took home the Best Animated Feature earlier this year at the 2009 awards and when the awards are announced next February Lee Unkrich and his team are up from a number of awards, along with Disney’s Tangled, but the recent decision of Disney to withdraw support for the awards may go some way to explaining the relatively few number of nods.

It has been a great year for animation as the films on the list below attest, and it’s nice to see Sylvain Chomet’s enchanting film The Illusionist scoring a point against the domination of CG here.

DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" flew high above competition by nabbing 15 nominations for the 38th annual Annie Awards given by the International Animated Film Society, Asifa-Hollywood. ("How to Train Your Dragon" movie review)

"Dragon," featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrara, Jonah Hill, and Craig Ferguson, will duke it out with Universal's "Despicable Me," Disney's "Tangled," Sony Pictures Classics' "The Illusionist," and Pixar's "Toy Story 3" for best animated feature. ("How to Train Your Dragon" interviews)

But there's controversy in the Annie Awards world. The Hollywood Reporter is saying that "Disney and Pixar announced they would no longer participate in the annual awards because of their concerns over how the event is judged."

Apparently, Disney was complaining that the Annie Awards has favored DreamWorks in recent years such as when "Kung Fu Panda" won 10 trophies and beat Pixar's "Wall-e" in 2008.

This year, DreamWorks Animation...

The month of December, January, and February pretty much means near-daily updates of award nominations and selections. The latest is for the 38th Annual Annie Awards, awarding excellence in the animation area. Leading the pack is How To Train Your Dragon, a film I recently re-watched and loved just as much as in the theater. Also getting big nods are Despicable Me, Tangled, The Illusionist, and Toy Story 3. Check out the full list below.

Production Categories

Best Animated Feature

* Despicable Me – Illumination Entertainment

* How to Train Your Dragon – DreamWorks Animation

* Tangled – Disney

* The Illusionist – Django Films

* Toy Story 3 – Disney/Pixar

Best Animated Short Subject

* Coyote Falls – Warner Bros. Animation

* Day & Night – Pixar

* Enrique Wrecks the World – House of Chai

* The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger – Plymptoons Studio

* The Renter – Jason Carpenter

Best Animated Television Commercial

* Children’s Medical Center – Duck Studios

* Frito Lay Dips “And Then...

Disney has tough competition in the form of itself this year, as “Tangled” and “Toy Story 3″ will compete against one another, along with a host of other fantastic animated films, at the 38th Annual Annie Awards.

The Annie Awards will be a battleground for the upcoming Oscar animation awards. This year, only three animated films will be nominated. Why? Because the rules that govern the Oscars are laughably outmoded. But that’s beside the point.

Fact is, the Annie Awards deserve attention amongst the many other awards shows because so many great animated films were released in 2010, arguably more than traditional films. “Tangled,” “Toy Story 3,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Despicable Me” and “The Illusionist” will jostle for the Best Animated Feature award.

Here’s a list of all the nominees.

Best Animated Feature

“Despicable Me” (Illumination Entertainment)

“How to Train Your Dragon” (DreamWorks)

“Tangled” (Disney)

“The Illusionist...

The International Animated Film Society Asifa-Hollywood has announced the nominees for the 38th Annual Annie Awards, and the DreamWorks feature How to Train Your Dragon leads the pack with more than ten nods. But there's a caveat; that and the full list of nominations after the break. This will be the first Annie Awards after Disney and Pixar withdrew from the organization [1] that organizes the awards. Toy Story 3 and Tangled did get Best Picture nominations, and Lee Unkrich was nominated Best Director. But in the feature deaprtment this is DreamWorks' show, with a few nods toward the Warner Bros. film Legend of the Guardians and a scant few other features such as The Illusionist. Disney's reason for withdrawing was rooted in the organization's very loose membership requirements (read: almost non-existent requirements, until recently) and the fact that DreamWorks seemed actively working to stack the deck in the studio's favor.

How To Train Your Dragon has dominated the nominations for the Annie Awards awarded by the International Animation Society.

It will compete for the top category against The Illusionist, Despicable Me, Tangled and Toy Story 3. It is surprising that Tangled and Toy Story were nominated since they withdrew from the International Animation Society.

Here is the complete list of nominations:

Best Animated Feature

Despicable Me – Illumination Entertainment

How to Train Your Dragon – DreamWorks Animation

Tangled – Disney

The Illusionist – Django Films

Toy Story 3 – Disney/Pixar

Best Animated Short Subject

Coyote Falls - Warner Bros. Animation

Day & Night – Pixar

Enrique Wrecks the World - House of Chai

The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger - Plymptoons Studio

The Renter - Jason Carpenter

Best Animated Television Commercial

Children’s Medical Center - Duck Studios

Frito Lay Dips “And Then There Was Salsa” - Laika/house

‘How To Train Your Dragon...