We have an official front-runner for the Animated Feature Oscar.
The Wild Robot flat-out dominated the 52nd annual Annie Awards on Saturday night, won eight trophies: Best Direction for Chris Sanders — his fifth career Annie — FX, Character Animation, Character Design, Production Design, Editorial, Music and Voice Acting for Lupita Nyong’o as lead character Roz. She was not present at UCLA’s Royce Hall to accept.
See the full winners list spanning film, TV, video games and more below.
Since the Best Animated Feature Oscar category was launched in 2002, 14 of the 22 winners of the Annies’ top feature prize – and seven of the past 12 – went on to claim the golden statuette. But last year bucked the trend as the Academy Award went to Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron over Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which dominated the 2024 Annies with seven nods.
Wild Robot‘s stunning run was interrupted when Sideshow/Janus Films’ Flow won for Best Writing – Feature. The indie pic’s win in the category is even more interesting in that it contain zero dialogue. Latvia’s International Feature Oscar Entry later added Best Feature – Independent to its tally.
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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the 10th film in the 57-year-old franchise and the first of a planned trilogy, won for Best Character Animation – Live Action. Despicable Me 4 later become the only other feature to win an Annie on Saturday, taking Best Storyboarding.
Wander to Wonder took the Short Subject prize. The announcer noted that this was the pic’s 41st awards win already, and it also is in the running for the Oscar and BAFTA.
Meanwhile, Netflix and Riot Games’ now-wrapped series Arcane came in with a small-screen-leading seven noms — and it dominated by winning all of its categories: Best Direction for TV/Media, Storyboarding, FX, Production Design, Editing, Music and Character Animation. The videogame-based series, which recently ended its second and final season, won nine Annies and an Animated Series Emmy for its 2021 first season, so it ends with an eye-popping 16 for its two seasons.
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The TV Voice Acting award went to Paula Pell for voicing Paula Dream Productions. The Inside Out series set in the time between the two feature films later added Best TV/Media – Limited Series.
Bob’s Burgers took the Annie Best TV/Media – Mature, and The Tiny Chef Show won for Preschool Series.
For much of the night, Arcane and The Wild Robot were the only titles with multiple Annie Awards, but Flow got two as did Dream Productions and Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, for Best Children’s Series and Character Design. The latter was the second consecutive win in the category for Jose Lopez. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur won three Annies last year.
Later, Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman won Best Writing TV/Media for DreamWorks Animation’s Orion and the Dark. It is his first career Annie, and the award was accepted by series director Sean Charmatz.
At about 8:45 p.m., an alarm sounded, the ceremony and livestream were halted and Royce Hall was cleared. After a 15-minute delay that including two fire alarms, the audience returned to their seats, and the show continued. The Annies tweeted that the interruption was due to “a fire alarm emergency,” but no other explanation was given. The announcer later called it “the Annies’ first-ever intermission,”
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The show opened with a performance the Los Angeles County Firefighters’ Fife & Drum Band. The first presenter, Steve Buscemi, thanked, congratulated and honored the first responders who risked it all to help save lives, property and pets during last month’s devastating wildfires. Turns out Buscemi was an FDNY firefighter himself years ago, and a picture of him in uniform was shown. The now-actor, who is active in the voice-over community, said the photo might have been from when he “was auditioning for the Village People.”
The Annies doubled as a fundraiser for AnimAID, which was launched to raise and distribute funds for wildfire relief. After the ceremony, it was announced that more than $107,000 had been raised. You can scan the QCode here to donate:
The evening’s first Juried Award, The June Foray Award, went to Women in Animation. Named for the Annie Awards founder, the award is presented to people who have made a positive impact on the animation industry. Alberto Menache later received the Ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement, and ASIFA-Hollywood‘s Special Achievement Award went to the book Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt’s Animated Films.
The Winsor McCay Awards for lifetime achievement were presented to Aaron Blaise, Normand Roger
and the daughter and granddaughter of Eunice Macaulay, who died in 2013 at 90.
Late last month, ASIFA-Hollywood revealed the Animation Educators’ Forum Hall of Fame Class of 2025. They are Leonard Maltin, John Canemaker and Ivan Sutherland along with the late Howard Beckerman, Nelbertina “Nellie” Chouinar, Thornton “T” Hee, Edwin G. Lutz, Don Perro and Frank Terry.
Here are the winners at the 2025 Annie Awards:
BEST FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
BEST FEATURE – INDEPENDENT
Flow
Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well Studio
BEST DIRECTION – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Chris Sanders
BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
Arnaud Delord, Pascal Charrue, Bart Maunoury
BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATURE
Despicable Me 4
Illumination
Habib Louati
BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episode: Killing is a Cycle
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
Joséphine Meis
BEST TV/MEDIA – LIMITED SERIES
Dream Productions
Episode: A Night to Remember
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST TV/MEDIA – MATURE
Bob’s Burgers
Episode: They Slug Horses, Don’t They?
20th Television Animation
BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDREN
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Episode: The Molecular Level
Flying Bark Productions, Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded Television
BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOL
The Tiny Chef Show
Episode: Tiny Chef’s Spooky Stump Spectacular
Imagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions and Nickelodeon Productions
BEST WRITING – FEATURE
Flow
Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio
Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža
BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA
Orion and the Dark
Special Production
DreamWorks Animation
Charlie Kaufman
BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Lupita Nyong’o (Character: Roz)
BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIA
Dream Productions Episode: Out of Body
Pixar Animation Studios
Paula Pell (Character: Paula)
BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Mary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian Parker
BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episode: Pretend Like It’s the First Time
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
Nazim Meslem, Gilad Carmel, Roberto Fernandez
BEST FX – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
FX Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve Avoujageli
BEST FX – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails
Production Company: A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
FX Production Company: Fortiche Studio
Guillaume Degroote, Aurélien Ressencourt, Adam Bachiri, Guillaume Zaouche, Jérôme Dupré
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Fabio Lignini
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episodes: Killing Is A Cycle, Heavy Is the Crown, Finally Got the Name Right, The Message Hidden Within the Pattern, The Dirt Under Your Nails, Pretend Like It’s the First Time, Blisters and Bedrock
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
Tom Gouill
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTION
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Production Company: 20th Century Studios
FX Production Company: Wētā FX
Christian Kickenweitz, Aidan Martin, Allison Orr, Radiya Alam, Howard Sly
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAME
Neva
Nomada Studio
Nomada Studio Animation Team
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Genevieve Tsai
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Episode: The Molecular Level
Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy Productions
Jose Lopez
BEST MUSIC – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Kris Bowers
BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
Ryan Jillian Santiago, Alexander Seaver, Simon Wilcox
BEST SPONSORED
Fuzzy Feelings
Passion Pictures Hungry Man
BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION
Orion and the Dark
DreamWorks Animation
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE
The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation
Raymond Zibach, Ritchie Sacilioc
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Arcane
Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails
A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix
Arnaud-Loris Baudry, Julien Georgel, Faustine Dumontier, Charlotte O’Neil
BEST SHORT SUBJECT
Wander to Wonder
Circe Films, Kaap Holland Film, Les Productions de Milou, Beast Animation, Blink Industries & Pictanovo
BEST STUDENT FILM
Adiós
Student Director: José Prats
Student Producer: Bernardo Angeletti
School: National Film and Television School
JURIED AWARDS
The Winsor McCay Awards
Aaron Blaise
Eunice Macaulay
Normand Roger
June Foray Award
Women in Animation
Ub Iwerks Award
Alberto Menache
Special Achievement Award
Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt’s Animated Films