Nominations Announced For 33rd Annual Annie Awards Honoring The Year's Best Animation

Nominations Announced For 33rd Annual Annie Awards Honoring The Year's Best Animation

'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' leads nominations; Tom Kenny hosts with Brad Bird, Jason Alexander and Seth MacFarlane presenting at February 4 awards ceremony

BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- ASIFA-Hollywood, The International Animated Film Society, announced today nominations for the 33rd Annual Annie Awards recognizing the year's finest animation across film, television, short subjects and gaming. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony and gala celebration on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA (216 N. Brand Blvd.).

In the feature categories "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (Aardman Features) led the pack with sixteen nominations including Best Animated Feature and a sweep in the voice acting category with Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Sallis and Nicholas Smith all earning nominations. "Madagascar" from DreamWorks Animation garnered nine nominations overall for Best Animated Feature as well as multiple nods in the Effects and Storyboarding categories.

Rounding out the Best Animated Feature category are "Chicken Little" (Walt Disney Feature Animation), "Corpse Bride" (Warner Bros. Presents A Tim Burton/Laika Entertainment Production) and "Howl's Moving Castle" (Walt Disney Studios/Studio Ghibli).

Nominations for Best Animated Television Production are "AVATAR: The Last Airbender" (Nickelodeon), "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" (Cartoon Network Studios), "My Life As A Teenage Robot" (Nickelodeon/Frederator), "Star Wars: Clone Wars II" (Cartoon Network Studios) and "The Batman" (Warner Bros. Animation).

Annual prestigious juried awards will also be awarded. The 33rd Annual Annie Award recipients are:

June Foray Award (significant impact): Mark Kausler
Winsor McCay Awards (lifetime achievement): Cornelius Cole; Tyrus Wong;
Fred Crippen
Ub Iwerks Award (technical achievement): "Corpse Bride"
Certificates of Merit: Larry Loc; "Dream on Silly Dreamer"

For a complete list of nominations, please logo onto
http://www.annieawards.com/.

Nearly 1,000 industry insiders -- studio brass, production executives, creative talent and animation luminaries -- will attend the black-tie awards ceremony on February 4, 2006 at the Alex Theatre. Festivities get underway with a pre-reception at 3 p.m., awards ceremony at 5 p.m. and a post event celebration immediately following, Tom Kenny, the award-winning voice of SpongeBob SquarePants and noted comic actor hosts again this year. Presenters confirmed to date include multi-talented Oscar and Annie winner Brad Bird, Seth MacFarlane creator of "The Family Guy" and the new animated series "American Dad," Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld" fame and frequent voice actor and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Surprise stage presentations from these and other presenters are certain to make this year's ceremony the most entertaining and irreverent yet.

The Annie Awards recognize outstanding achievement across 22 categories covering overall excellence as well as individual achievement in areas ranging from production design, character animation, and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, directing, music and voice acting. Entries submitted for Annie consideration must be from productions that originally aired, were exhibited in an animation festival, or were commercially released in the United States between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.

Tickets for the 33rd Annual Annie Awards are available to the public as space permits by calling the Alex Theatre Box office at (818) 243-2539. Admission is $75 per person and tickets include both pre and post receptions.

Sponsors of the 33rd Annual Annie Awards include Cartoon Network, Disneytoon Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks, 20th Century Fox Animation, Walt Disney Feature Animation and Walt Disney Television Animation. Media partner: awn.

ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest of an international network of chapters, supports a range of animation initiatives through its membership. In addition to the Annual Annie Awards projects include special animation events, classes and screenings, film and video archives and film preservation.

For general information and sponsorship for the 33rd Annual Annie Awards visit http://www.annieawards.org/ or contact ASIFA-Hollywood at (818) 842-8330.

Source: ASIFA-Hollywood

CONTACT: Melanie Crandall, +1-310-739-0955, crandallm@earthlink.net; or
Jarrod Holland, +1-910-395-4829, jarrod@jahcommunications.com, both for ASIFA-
Hollywood

Web site: http://www.annieawards.com/

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