'Flow', 'Wander to Wonder' Get 2025 Annie Awards

ZF Team 09 February 2025

This was the night (8 February 2025) in which DreamWorks' 'The Wild Robot' garnered 9 Annie Awards. The story of a robot in a wild forest got the Best Feature at the 52nd Annie Awards.

In a rather expected turn, 'The Wild Robot' also won: Best FX-Feature (Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve Avoujageli), Best Character Animation - Feature (Fabio Lignini), Best Character Design – Feature (Genevieve Tsai), Best Direction – Feature (Chris Sanders), Best Music - Feature (Kris Bowers), Best Production Design – Feature (Raymond Zibach, Ritchie Sacilioc) Best Voice Acting – Feature (Lupita Nyong’o as Roz) and Best Editorial – Feature (Mary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian Parker).

Still, Gints Zilbalodis's Latvian/French/Belgian (and indie) feature Flow won two Annie Awards: Best Feature—Independent (the Annie Awards separate US studio animation features from indie ones, given to production companies Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, and Dream Well Studio) and Best Writing for an Animation Feature (Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža).

Nina Gantz won the Annie Award for Best Short Subject for her stop-motion film 'Wander to Wonder' (Circe Films, Kaap Holland Film, Les Productions de Milou, Beast Animation, Blink Industries, and Pictanovo). The film is also Oscar-nominated.

Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton are three tiny humans who star in a kids' TV series called “Wander to Wonder”. After the creator dies, they are left alone in the studio. Struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans.

Another stop-motion short film won at the 52nd Annie Awards. Best Student Film was presented to Adiós by José Prats (National Film and Television School José Prats, Bernardo Angeletti).

Out hunting one day in rural Spain, a father struggles to accept that his adult son is moving abroad and is dealing with feelings of being left alone.

The full list of the 2025 Annie Awards

The Winsor McCay Award in recognition of lifetime or career contributions were being presented to three recipients – Longtime Disney Supervising Animator/Director Aaron Blaise, National Film Board of Canada (NFB) writer, director, producer, and Academy Award influencer Eunice Macaulay (posthumous); and influential NFB composer and sound designer Normand Roger.

The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement affecting the animation industry will be presented to visual effects, animation and gaming pioneer Alberto Menache who contributed founding technology to performance capture, virtual production and more. The Special Achievement Award acknowledging unique and outstanding achievement not recognized within the existing award category structure will be presented to Directing at Disney-The Original Directors of Walt’s Animated Films, the historically important new book by Pete Docter and Don Peri.

Here's the full 52nd Annie Awards Ceremony