While all eyes will be on the Directors Guild of America tomorrow night, I’ll be gladly checking out the ceremony for the Annie Awards. One of the brightest spots of the Oscar season, their livestreamed awards are often funny and quite engaging. You won’t find great production values, but being entertained is often more important.

ANNIE AWARDS

Best Animated Feature

Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings (Peter, Thomas, RU:Wesley, RU:Tripp)
Kung Fu Panda 3
Moana (RU:Peter)
Zootopia (Wesley, Tripp, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: While I adore Kubo and think it’s easily the best animated film of the year, they will likely follow the Academy’s lead and give it to Zootopia, a good, but entirely inferior production.
Peter J. Patrick: Kubo and the Two Strings is the only one of the nominees I really liked. If the vote is for quality over loyalty to Disney, it should be an easy winner. I thought the presumed frontrunner, Zootopia, was extremely overrated and way too obvious in its message which was delivered with a sledgehammer. Finding Dory I found cute at best, dumb at worst. I gave up on Panda movies with the first one. Not having seen Moana, I just hope that it is better than those three, which makes it my easy pick for runner-up.
Tripp Burton: The Disney films should put up a big fight and could hurt each other, but Zootopia is consistently winning in these battles and should do it again here.
Thomas LaTourette: I could see Laika’s Kubo winning out over the more successful Zootopia, but it should be a close race. The more recently released Moana will be in people’s minds too, but I do not think that will propel it to a win.

Best Animated Feature – Independent

Long Way North
Miss Hokusai
My Life As a Zucchini (Tripp, RU:Wesley)
The Red Turtle (Wesley, Thomas, RU:Peter, RU:Tripp)
Your Name. (Peter, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: It will likely come down to the two Oscar nominees in the bunch, though Your Name can’t be entirely counted out thanks to its box office dominance in Japan. That said, The Red Turtle has been consistently celebrated as an alternative to the major studio efforts and should beat out My Life As a Zucchini.
Peter J. Patrick: I haven’t seen any of these, but the description of these two strike me as the most interesting.
Tripp Burton: I would assume one of the Oscar nominees would win here, but which one is anyone’s guess.
Thomas LaTourette: I would think the GKids favorite The Red Turtle would win over the others, but it is hard to tell with this category.

Best Animated Short Subject

Blind Vaysha (RU:Wesley)
Deer Flower
Path Title Sequence
Pearl (Peter, RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)
Piper (Wesley, Tripp, Thomas, RU:Peter)

Wesley Lovell: There are three Oscar nominees in this bunch. I’m honestly not sure which will win, but I give the edge to Pixar’s Piper, a clever, wordless film, over the less known Pearl or Blind Vaysha, both have a fairly good chance of upsetting.
Peter J. Patrick: These two seem to be Oscar favorites and are as likely to win and place as any of the nominees.
Tripp Burton: Pixar’s Piper seems to be a favorite. Anything else is a guess.
Thomas LaTourette: I would think Pixar’s Piper would win, but Pearl being done for 360 degree viewing might win just for being so different.

Best Animated Special Production

Audrie & Daisy (Thomas, RU:Tripp)
Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll (Wesley)
Little Big Awesome
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (Peter)
Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Tripp, RU:Wesley, RU:Peter, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: A mixture of efforts here make this truly a “special” caetgory. I haven’t heard of all of these, but based on past peformance at the Annie Awards, I give the edge to the Kung Fu Panda production. I do, however, reconize that Pear Cider is an Oscar nominee, which could bolster its profile and Middle School is an equally interesting option. It’s too bad A Monster Calls couldn’t have figured into this race.
Thomas LaTourette: I know nothing about this category.

Best Animated Effects, Animation

Kubo and the Two Strings (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (RU:Wesley)
Moana (RU:Peter, RU:Thomas)
The Red Turtle
Zootopia (RU:Tripp)

Wesley Lovell: A lot of the night’s victories are going to come down between Kubo and the Two Strings and Zootopia, since Kubo is the more inventive of the productions in this animated effects category, I’m giving it the lead.
Thomas LaTourette: Having snagged an Oscar nomination for visual effects, I would think that Kubo will be the one to beat here. If anything might best it, I would think the gorgeous ocean effects of Moana might win.

Best Animated Effects, Live Action

Deepwater Horizon – The Rig (RU:Thomas)
Doctor Strange – Mirror Dimension (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Ghostbusters (RU:Wesley)
The BFG (RU:Peter, RU:Tripp)
Warcraft – Magic

Wesley Lovell: Two of these are Oscar nominees for Best Visual Effects, the closest comparison the Academy has to this category. That doesn’t mean much, but I expect Doctor Strange‘s mind-bending effects will triumph over the more traditional ones featured in the other films. A possible spoiler here is Warcraft, which has a LOT of effects in it compared to some of the others. I wouldn’t put it past them to recognize the film.
Thomas LaTourette: The striking effects of the mirror dimension from Doctor Strange should win as they were breathtaking. If not, then the serious work of Deepwater Horizon should win over the lighter films.

Best Character Animation, Animated Feature

Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings (Wesley, Peter)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (RU:Wesley)
Zootopia (Animator : Dave Hardin Character: Judy Hopps, Stu Hopps, Bonnie Hopps, Chief Bogo, Nick Wilde) (Tripp, Thomas, RU:Peter)
Zootopia (Animator : Chad Sellers Character: Mr. Big, Koslov, Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, Flash) (RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: Obviously they love the Zootopia designers, but a split vote between them could allow another film into the race. Kubo required a great deal of design on its myriad characters, which may just be enough to allow it to pull off a win over the more traditional work in the others, especially over the two sequels that have a lot of preexisting character animations built up.
Thomas LaTourette: The characters of Zootopia were what made the film, so I think one set of their animators will win here.

Best Character Animation, Live Action Feature

Captain America: Civil War – Spider-Man (Peter)
Game of Thrones – Battle of the Bastards (RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)
The Jungle Book (Animation Supervisor: Andrew R. Jones, Animation Supervisor: Peta Bayley, Animation Supervisor: Gabriele Zucchelli, Character Supervisor: Benjamin Jones) (Wesley, Thomas)
The Jungle Book (Animation Supervisor: Andrew R. Jones, Senior Animation Supervior: Paul Story, Animation Supervisor: Dennis Yoo, Motion Editor: Eteuati Tema, Senior Facial Modeller: Andrei Coval) (Tripp, RU:Wesley)
Warcraft – Orcs (RU:Peter)

Wesley Lovell: The Jungle Book is basically one giant animated film with a human character thrown in. Since they had to go with super realism to get the animals to come to life, they clearly have an edge, but which of the two entries? I’ll admit, I took a guess and it could be swapped, but I would be surprised if they didn’t pick one or the other…unless there’s a split by those who can’t decide either. Then any of the others could win, but considering how much went into the orcs in Warcraft, and how well such efforts have played here in the past, it could be a spoiler.
Thomas LaTourette: I would think that The Jungle Book will win here, though Game of Thrones will give it some strong competition.

Best Character Design

Kubo and the Two Strings (Peter, Tripp, Thomas, RU:Wesley)
Moana
The Secret Life of Pets (RU:Peter)
Trolls
Zootopia (Wesley, RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: The same rational I used for Character Animation should apply here but for some reason, I suspect it won’t, thus I reversed my predictions from there. I still think it’s possible that Kubo takes this as well for those identical reasons I cited above.
Thomas LaTourette: The created world figures of Kubo may beat out the drawings of Zootopia, but it is hard to predict.

Best Directing

Kubo and the Two Strings – Travis Knight (Peter, Thomas, RU:Wesley)
My Life As a Zucchini – Claude Barras (RU:Peter)
The Red Turtle – Michael Dudok De Wit (RU:Tripp)
Your Name. – Makoto Shinkai
Zootopia – Byron Howard, Rich Moore (Wesley, Tripp, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: Hand-in-hand with Best Animated Feature is my guess. I give it to Zootopia with Kubo as the runner-up.
Thomas LaTourette: Even though Zootopia will probably go on to win the Oscar, I could see Laika’s Kubo taking this prize at the Annies.

Best Music

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader – Kristopher Carter, Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion (RU:Tripp)
The Little Prince – Hans Zimmer, Richard Harvey, Camille (RU:Wesley, RU:Thomas)
The Red Turtle – Laurent Perez Del Mar (Wesley, Thomas)
The Secret Life of Pets – Alexandre Desplat (Tripp, RU:Peter)
Sing – Joby Talbot (Peter)

Wesley Lovell: This is a tough category. You have two composing legends, Hans Zimmer and Alexandre Desplat, against five (three for one film) lesser known talents who have likely been working in the business a long time and built up plenty of relationships. That said, I ultimately gave the prize to The Red Turtle since the film is dialogue-free and requires a lot of storytelling through music mood, but I wouldn’t be surprised by any of the others.
Thomas LaTourette: The score was very memorable in The Red Turtle, so it deserves to win here. Sing or The Little Prince would likely be the closest competition.

Best Production Design

Kubo and the Two Strings (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Little Prince
Trolls
Zootopia (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter, RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: Yes, Zootopia has an entire world to build, but the degree to which Kubo went to design and physically construct many of the sets, I suspect they’ll get some recognition for that.
Thomas LaTourette: I would also expect that Kubo might win over Zootopia here as well.

Best Storyboarding

Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings (Peter, RU:Tripp)
Moana (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter, RU:Thomas)
Trolls
Zootopia (Wesley, Tripp, Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: For once, this category isn’t filled with multiple entries for the same film. Ultimately, I stuck with the Disney/Pixar grouping of films because they have bigger art departments that can handle these tasks as an actual product rather than a means to an end. I went with Zootopia over Moana because it seems like a film more likely to require some intense storyboarding, but I wouldn’t be surprised by Moana or another film altogether either.
Thomas LaTourette: One of the Disney features might win here over Kubo, with the edge going to Zootopia.

Best Voice Acting

Kubo and the Two Strings – Art Parkinson (Peter)
Moana – Auli’i Cravlho (Wesley, RU:Peter, RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)
Storks – Katie Crown
Trolls – Zooey Deschanel
Zootopia – Jason Bateman (Tripp, Thomas, RU:Wesley)

Wesley Lovell: ASIFA doesn’t go for big names in voice acting as other groups might. Oftentimes, they go for talents that have been in the business for years and have developed a strong reputation. That said, I can’t help but think the singing and voiceover work required of Auli’i Cravalho was daunting and, for such a youngster, challenging. It could also go to Katie Crown as one of the well known voiceover regulars, or possibly better known actors Jason Bateman or Zooey Deschanel. Art Parkinson also wouldn’t surprise me.
Thomas LaTourette: Jason Bateman’s sly fox may prevail over the others here.

Best Writing

Kubo and the Two Strings (Peter, RU:Wesley, RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)
My Life As a Zucchini (RU:Peter)
The Red Turtle
Zootopia (Wesley, Tripp, Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: Sometimes, ASIFA picks a name off the list that won’t win anywhere else or that might need career recognition. Elsewise, they go for the winner of the top prize. I’m suspecting Zootopia will win this for its story about inclusivity and perception. The grand adventures of Kubo and the Two Strings, including its twisty narrative revelations, could also make a play for the award. The only problem with the inclusivity angle is that most of the characters were built around pre-conceived notions of how certain animals would be perceived to behave. Some end up acting in different ways eventually, but most are pretty static. Then again, how many people would actually think of that.
Thomas LaTourette: Zootopia could win, if for nothing else than the DMV scene.

Best Editing

April and the Extraordinary World
Kubo and the Two Strings (Wesley, Peter, Thomas)
Moana (RU:Peter)
Sausage Party
Zootopia (Tripp, RU:Wesley, RU:Thomas)

Wesley Lovell: This is a category where I think the stop-motion Kubo would stand a better shot, but at the American Cinema Editors awards, Zootopia ended up winning, so I could be entirely wrong.
Thomas LaTourette: This would seem to be Kubo’s rather than Zootopia’s.