We can say something about the Annie Awards that we can’t say about most other awards ceremonies: It’s not a popularity contest. The nominations for the 53rd Annies were revealed this morning, and there are two leads. One of them is obvious – Demon hunters in kpop with ten nominations — but the other is less expected, an equal number of names for Pixar’s largely overlooked summer blockbuster Elio.
KiloPDH’Nominations include Best Writing, Best Character Animation, Best Voice Acting, Best Production Design, and of course, Best Music. Elio It competes for Best FX, Best Character Design, Best Storyboard, and Best Production Design. Both are competing for the Best Picture award.
Chase their heels Zoobus 2 With seven nominations, the French film Little Amelie or Rain character With seven others. Third place goes to Villains 2 With five nominations. All five films mentioned above are nominated for Best Picture.
In terms of TV, another less-loved Pixar creation is leading the way: Win or Lose, a miniseries created for Disney+, which received six nominations. The Adult Swim series’ common side effects have five names, and so does the Netflix series Asterix and Obelix: The Big Battle. Contestants include three nominations each Love and death + robots, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical.
Check out the full list of Annie nominations below. The 53rd Annie Awards will be held on February 21, 2026 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Best feature
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Villains 2 -DreamWorks Animation
- Zootopia 2 -Walt Disney Animation Studios
Best feature – independent
- Wonderful life – MediaOne, What’s the Broad, and Bodypool
- Arco – Remember, MountainA France, France 3 Cinema
- I’m Frankilda – Fantasma Cinema, Warner Bros. Discovery, Wu Films, and CineVendaval
- Lost in the starlight – Netflix/Climax Studio
- Scarlet – Chiso Studio
Best Special Production
- Christmas Movie in a Noisy House: Naughty or Nice – Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Jamfilled Entertainment
- Adult elephant swimming – Chickadee and Williams Street
- Not just goofy – Venturia Animation Studios ® of CNEK Films LLC
- Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical – WildBrain Studios in collaboration with Apple
- The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland – Lupus Films, World Pictures Content Collection
Best short topic
- cartoon – Animated locks
- Ovary ai – Cut and Glue, Jante Films, Apparat Filmproduktion AB
- Bellows – Animush
- Snow bear – Art by Aaron Blaise
- The Girl Who Cried Pearls – National Film Board of Canada
Best care
- Short animation: “Journey” | Honkai: Star Rail – Designed by FLiiiP
- Fortnite x The Simpsons: Apocalypse D’Oh! – Gracie Films production in collaboration with 20th Television Animation
- LouiMax dreams of becoming an adult – Imagine creating media in collaboration with Maileg APS
- Olipop Yeti – Screen updates and emotional images
- Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – Animation – SEGA of America in cooperation with GXS Productions
Best TV/Media – Preschool
- Eva the owl – episode: Welcome to Treetopington – Brown Bag Films / Scholastic Entertainment in association with Apple
- Kindergarten: Musical! – episode: Gotta go! – Oddbot Entertainment, a Disney-branded TV
- Little Chef Show – episode: The creepy little chef’s torso is amazing – Imagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions, and Nickelodeon Productions
- Wow Lisa – episode: rainy day – Punk Robot
- Xavier Riedel and the Secret Museum – episode: I’m Jackie Robinson – 9 Story Media Group, Brown Bag Films
Best TV/Media – Kids
- Melody and Kurome – episode: All for the sake of our best friend – Sanrio Netflix
- Spice Frontier: Escape from Veltigar – episode: 1 – Animation of the ship
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – episode: Rise of the Night Ninja – Nickelodeon Animation Studios and PointGrey Pictures
- The weird and wonderful world of Gumball – episode: Rewrite – Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe
- Wild pack – episode: Songandol -Nickelodeon Animation Studios/Jam Field Entertainment
Best TV/Media – Mature
- Bob’s Burger – episode: Grand opening pre-opening – Twentieth TV
- Common side effects – episode: pilot – Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, Williams Street Productions
- Haha, clowns – episode: 107- Duncan holding a baby -Williams Street
- The paracino – episode: Claudia enters the café -Lackard, Megadrago
- South Park – episode: Sermon on the Mount. – Comedy Central LLC
Best TV/Media – Limited Series
- Asterix and Obelix: The Big Battle – episode: Episode three – Netflix / Banijay Productions France / Legend Films
- Wakanda’s eyes – episode: To the lion’s den -Marvel Studios
- Zombie marvel – episode: 2 -Marvel Studios
- Star Wars: Visions – Volume 3 – episode: black – David’s production
- Win or lose – episode: Episode 8: Home – Pixar Animation Studios
Best student film
- In Sparpsong oh– Student Director: Tobias Eckerlein, Student Producer: Tobias Eckerlein, School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
- Acrobats – Student directors: Eloise Allouin, Hugo Danet, Anna Despinoy, Antonin Ghersi, Alexandre Marzin, Chali Reddy; School: Goblins
- Windy day – Student directors: Martin Shaylocks, I Kim Crispin, Elise Golfuss, Chloe Lapp, Hugo Tellez, Camille Truding; School: New Pictures School
- The pain of undying existence – Student Director: Oscar Jacobson; Student Producers: Franz Rujamer, Nadja Jonatska; School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
- waste – Student Directors: Maxime Cranson, Alexis Le Rall; Student Producers: Robin Delaporte, Romain Fleischer, Mathieu Durand; School: ESMA
Best FX – TV/Media
- Zombie marvel – episode: Episode 4 – Production company: Marvel Animation – FX production company: Stellar Creative Lab, Inc.
- Emma Badia, Tristan Fairclough, Jamie Dumont, Xing Hong, Arth Vasavada
- Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age – episode: The big freeze – Production company: BBC Studios Natural History Unit – FX production company: Framestore
- Edward Vriesenanda, Kevin Christensen, Jay Shulman, Benedikt Rutger, Kevin Tarpinian
- Spice limits – episode: 1 – Production company: Steamroller Animation – FX production company: Steamroller Animation
- Steamroller animation effects section
- Star Wars: Visions – Volume 3 – episode: Bird of paradise – Production company: Polygon Pictures. – FX Production Company: Polygon Pictures
- Takashi Okamoto, Kohei Yamamoto, Ginyu Sasaki, Chizuru Nakamura, Erika Matsui
- Wonderla – episode: lost – Production company: Skydance Animation – FX production company: ICON Creative Studio
- Episode 209 ICON Creative Studio FX Team
Best FX – Feature
- Elio – Production company: Pixar Animation Studios – FX production company: Pixar Animation Studios
- Ferdie Schippers, Sean Jalinak, Alyssa Lee, Nate Skeen, Gary Bruins
- In your dreams – Production company: Netflix, Kuku Studios – FX production company: Sony Pictures Imageworks
- Dmitry Kolesnik, Steven Pashek, David Selaris, Stephanie McNair
- Demon hunters in kpop – Production company: Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix – FX production company: Sony Pictures Imageworks
- Filippo Macari, Nicola Visio, Simon Lewis, Naoki Kato, Daniel LaChapelle
- Villains 2 – Production company: DreamWorks Animation – FX production company: DreamWorks Animation
- Landon Gray, Michael Lesueur, Zachary Glenn, Chris Wombold, Olivier Malric
- Zootopia 2 – Production company: Walt Disney Animation Studios – FX production company: Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Lee Joyce Tong, Shamintha Kalamba Arachchi, Dimitri Berberov, Chris Carignan, Christiana Covoni
Best Character Animation – TV/Media
- Asterix and Obelix: The Big Battle – episode: Episode three – Netflix / Banijay Productions France / Legend Films
- Florian Casero
- forever – Special Production – Nathan Englehart and Jeremy Spears
- Brendan Gottlieb
- Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical – Special production – WildBrain Studios in collaboration with Apple
- Chris DeRucci
- The Simpsons – Various episodes – Gracie Films production in collaboration with 20th Television Animation
- Nick Ranieri
- Win or lose – Various episodes – Pixar Animation Studios
- Ali Sadeqiani
Best Character Animation – Feature
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Jonah their Lord
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix
- Ryosuke Furuya
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Juliette Laurent
- Villains 2 -DreamWorks Animation
- Ludovic Poinchaud
- Zootopia 2 -Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Tony Smid
Best Character Animation – Live Action
- Minecraft movie – Production company: Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Mojang Studios, Vertigo Entertainment, On the Roam – FX production company: Weta FX
- Kevin Estey, Anthony McIndoe, Jade Laurier, Caroline Ting, Louisma Lavigne Peridot
- Captain America: Brave New World – Production company: Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures – FX production company: Weta FX
- Sydney Compo Kintumbo, Andrew William Park, Marco Roth, Paul Sipp, Thin Lee
- How to train your dragon – Production company: DreamWorks Animation – FX production company: Framestore
- Cain Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Mina Ibrahim, Nathan McConnell, Nick Tripodi
- Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age – Production company: BBC Studios Natural History Unit – FX production company: Framestore
- Adrian Annesley, Elvis Avati, Riyad Chalakara, Daniel Mizoguchi, Liam Russell
- Superman – Production company: DC Studios – FX production company: Framestore
- Loic Merault, Michael Elder, Philip Wintersteen, Victor Denis, Diego de Paula Pereira Batista
Best Character Animation – Video Game
- Goodbye sweet Carol – Small sewing machine
- Chris Darrell
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach – Kojima Productions
- Hideo Kojima, Masaaki Kawata, Kojima Productions, PlayStation Studios XDEV
- Ute ghost – Sucker Punch Productions
- Sucker Punch Productions animation team
- a guard – Double Fine Productions
- Zak Baharoff, Alex Turner, Jerry Matsko, Anne-Sophie Savard, Genevieve Debiens
- South of Midnight -Forcing games
- Mike Jungbluth, Sébastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, Remy Edmond
Best Character Design – Television/Media
- Asterix and Obelix: The Big Battle – episode: Episode four – Netflix / Banijay Productions France / Legend Films
- Borja Montoro
- Pat fam Episode: Knight at the Movies – Amazon MGM Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment
- Benjamin Tong
- Love and death + robots – episode: 400 Benin – Blur Studio for Netflix
- Robert Vale
- Wednesday with Gramps – Short film – DreamWorks Animation
- Seth St. Pierre
- Win or lose – episode: Episode 8, Home – Pixar Animation Studios
- If you don’t have a father-in-law
Best Character Design – Feature
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Matt Nolte, Yingzhong Chen, James Woods, Caleb Rice, Bob Pauley
- Pinned – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- Craig Kelman
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- Scott Watanabe, Ami Thompson
- The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants – Paramount Animation/Nickelodeon Movies
- Adam Baloyan, Thaddeus Cauldron, Alfie Ramirez
- Idiots – Netflix/The Roald Dahl Story Company presents
- Key Acedera, Tristan Poulin, Jules Rigol, Fernando Pique, Remy Salmon
Best Direction – Television/Media
- Common side effects – episode: The edge of the abyss – Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions ○ Vincent Tsui
- And da and – episode: clash! Space Kaiju vs Giant Robot! – Science SARU, Mainichi Broadcast System, distributed by GKIDS
- Fuji Yamashiro, Abel Gongura
- Not a box – episode: It’s a boat – Silver Creek Falls Entertainment/Passion Pictures in association with Apple
- Sir Melchior
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – episode: Rise of the Night Ninja – Nickelodeon Animation Studios and PointGrey Pictures
- JJ Conway, Kevin Molina Ortiz
- Quinta’s ghost – Short Film – Martirio Films and Eleusorium Films
- james a. Castillo
Best Direction – Feature
- Arco – Remember, MountainA France, France 3 Cinema
- Ugo Bienvenu, Adam Saillard, Anael Saba
- Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – Map Studios
- Tatsuya Yoshihara
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Myles Valade, Lian Chu Han
- Scarlet – Chiso Studio
- Mamoru Hosoda
Best Music – TV/Media
- Common side effects – episode: LAKESHORE LIMITED – Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, Williams Street Productions
- Nicholas Snyder
- devil may cry – episode: First circle – Netflix series / Studio Mir / Uday Shankar Animation / Capcom
- Power Glove, Alex Seaver
- Ero – Short film – Cartoon Salon
- Leo Pearson, Keira Conway
- Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical – Special production – WildBrain Studios in collaboration with Apple
- Ben Folds, Jeff Morrow, Alan Zachary, Michael Weiner
- Win or lose – episode: Episode 6, Mixed Signals – Pixar Animation Studios
- Ramin Djawadi, Shane Ely, Johnny Bakvar
Best Music – Feature
- Arco – Remember, MountainA France, France 3 Cinema
- Arnaud Toulon
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Rob Simonsen
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- KPop music group Demon Hunters
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Mary Fukuhara
- Zootopia 2 -Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin, Michael Giacchino
Best Production Design – Television/Media
- Asterix and Obelix: The Big Battle – episode: The second episode – Netflix / Banijay Productions France / Legend Films
- Aurelian Bredal
- forever – Special Production – Nathan Englehart and Jeremy Spears
- Jeremy Spears, Gregory Culp
- Love and death + robots – episode: How did Zeke get the debt? – Blur Studio for Netflix
- Gigi Kavenago
- ParaNorman: Saving – Own production – Leica
- Thibaut Leclerc, Santiago Montiel, Jung Wonyoung, Stephanie Bray Lee
- Wednesday with Gramps – Short film – DreamWorks For animation
- Frederick Stuart
Best Production Design – Feature
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Harley Jessup, Ernesto Nemesio, Maria Lee, Christian Norelius, Kyle Jones
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- Helen Chen, Dave Bleach, Wendell Dallet, Scott Watanabe, Celine Kim
- Villains 2 -DreamWorks Animation
- Luc Desmarchelier, Florian Marchex
- Idiots – Netflix/The Roald Dahl Story Company presents
- Estefania Pantoja, Alexandre DeBoyne, Clement Dartigues, Fernando Pique, Remy Salmon
- Zootopia 2 -Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Corey Loftis, Lemmy Z. Hashia
Best Storyline – Television/Media
- Love and death + robots – episode: How did Zeke get the debt? – Blur Studio for Netflix
- Edgar Martinez
- ParaNorman: Saving – Own production – Leica
- Colton Palmer, Katherine Jae Myung, Hyewon Jeong
- Snow bear – Short Film – Art of Aaron Blaze LLC.
- Aaron Blaise
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – episode: Rise of the Night Ninja – Nickelodeon Animation Studios and PointGrey Pictures
- Richard Chi, Matthew Kim, Sheldon Vela, Lindsay Simpson
- Win or lose – episode: Episode 8, Home – Pixar Animation Studios
- Steven Bravo
Best Storyboard – Feature
- Arco – Remember, MountainA France, France 3 Cinema
- Welcome
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Tony Rosenast
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Nikola Pawlowski
- Villains 2 -DreamWorks Animation
- Anthony Holden, Young Ki-yeon
- Zootopia 2 -Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Hikari Toriumi
Best Voice Acting – Television/Media
- Bob’s Burger – episode: Don’t worry, be a hobi – Twentieth TV
- Dan Mintz (Character: Tina Belcher)
- Hazbin Hotel – episode: Behind closed doors – Amazon MGM Studios, A24, Bento Box Entertainment
- Erika Henningsen (Character: Charlie Morningstar)
- Long story short – episode: Shira can’t cook Tornante Television and ShadowMachine for Netflix
- Abbi Jacobson (Character: Shira Schoeber)
- Smiling friends – episode: Shamlogles -Williams Street
- Zach Hadel (Character: Evil Wizard)
- The weird and wonderful world of Gumball – episode: idiot – Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe
- Alexa Thel (Character: Gumball Watterson)
Best Voice Acting – Feature
- Dog man -DreamWorks Animation
- Lil Rel Howery (Character: The Boss)
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Remy Edgerly (Character: Gordon)
- In your dreams – Netflix presents a Kuku Studios/Sony Pictures Imageworks production
- Craig Robinson (Character: Baloney Tony)
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- Arden Chu (Character: Rumi)
- Idiots – Netflix/The Roald Dahl Story Company presents
- Maitri Ramakrishnan (Character: Bisha)
Best Writing – Television/Media
- #1 Happy Family in USA – episode: Episode 101: Nine and Ten – Amazon MGM Studios, A24, Cairo Cowboy
- Ramy Youssef, Pam Brady
- Adult elephant swimming – Special Production – Titmouse and Williams Street
- Pendleton Ward, Ian Jones-Quartey, Rebecca Sugar, Patrick McHale
- Common side effects – episode: pilot – Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, Williams Street Productions
- Joe Bennett, Steve Healey
- Lulu is a unicornZeros – Own production – Bento Box and Propagate in collaboration with Apple
- Alison Flom
- Win or lose – episode: Episode 4, Pickles – Pixar Animation Studios
- Carrie Hobson, Michael Yates
Best Writing – Feature
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Julia Chu, Mark Hammer, Mike Jones
- Demon hunters in kpop – KPop Demon Hunters editorial team
- Dania Jimenez, Hannah MacMechan, Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Lian Zhou Han, Odie Bai, Myles Valade, Eden Noel
- Scarlet – Chiso Studio
- Mamoru Hosoda
- Zootopia 2 -Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Jared Bush
Best Editorial – TV/Media
- Asterix and Obelix: The Big Battle – Ebby in the garden: Episode three – Netflix / Banijay Productions France / Legend Films
- David Boyajian
- Common side effects – episode: raid – Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, Williams Street Productions
- Tony Kristofferson, Joey Lim
- Haunted hotel – episode: Abaddon’s helpers – Chickadee for Netflix
- Benjamin Morse, Benjamin Mars, Marshall Whitta
- invincible C3 – Episode: I thought you would never shut up – Amazon MGM Studios, Skybound Animation
- Luke Asa Guidicchi, Matt Michael, Leah Carosella, William Johnson
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch – episode: From the grave – Ubisoft Film & Television
- Thomas Bellaire, Nicolas Bourgeois, Julian Perez
Best Editorial – Feature
- Arco – Remember, MountainA France, France 3 Cinema
- Nathan Jacquard
- Elio – Pixar Animation Studios
- Anna Wolitsky, Steve Blum, Noah Newman, Greg Snyder, Ben Morris
- Demon hunters in kpop – Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
- KPop Demon Hunters editorial team
- Little Amelie or Rain character – Maybe Films, Eki Films, GKIDS Distribution
- Ludovic Versace
- Olivia and the clouds -Cinema Chani, Historias de Pepe and Guasabara Cinema
- Thomas Pichardo Espaillat
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