The Annie Awards 2025: Celebrating the best in animation

The Annie Awards are dedicated entirely to animation and recognising the artists, studios and storytellers in the industry. The awards highlight not only major studio productions but also independent creators, students and technical artists shaping the future of the industry.

This year marked the fifty-third edition of the awards, continuing a long tradition of honouring innovation, creativity and craft across film, television and games.

While every winner represents outstanding work, here are a few highlights that showcase the breadth of creativity across the animation industry and may inspire you if you are considering a future in animation.

Best Feature: KPop Demon Hunters

One of the biggest winners of the night was KPop Demon Hunters, which picked up Best Feature and continued its incredible run of success. It won 10 awards at this ceremony alone, including Best Character Design for a feature film, making it the clear standout of the evening. It is also Netflix’s most-watched film to date, being watched more than 236 million times.

The film made a huge impact thanks to its catchy soundtrack, bold visuals and likeable characters. Mixing high-energy action with music and fantasy storytelling, it connected with audiences around the world and showed how animation can blend genres and reach all kinds of viewers.

Best Feature — Independent: Arco

This category is designed to recognise animated films produced outside of the major Hollywood studio system. It shines a spotlight on independent studios and filmmakers who are creating bold, original work, often with smaller teams and budgets but just as much ambition. Produced by Remembers Production, MountainA and France 3 Cinéma, Arco follows the journey of a young boy attempting to return to his own timeline through time travel.

Categories like this are especially inspiring. You do not need to be part of a major studio to create award-winning work. Strong ideas, a clear visual style and confident storytelling can make an impact at any scale.

Best Short Subject: Snow Bear

Snow Bear by Aaron Blaise won Best Short Subject. Hand-drawn over three years by Aaron Blaise, a former Disney animator and director of Brother Bear, the film tells the story of a lonely polar bear who creates a companion when he struggles to find friends in his harsh Arctic habitat.

The short is a beautiful example of traditional hand-drawn animation, showing how patience, craft and storytelling can create a deeply moving experience.

Best Student Film: A Sparrow’s Song

Directed and produced by Tobias Eckerlin at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, A Sparrow’s Song won Best Student Film. Inspired by a true story, it follows a widowed air raid warden during the Second World War who is struggling with grief until she finds a dying sparrow she is determined to save. Through a simple but moving story, the film explores themes of loss, healing and quiet resilience.

Student films like this show how strong storytelling and thoughtful character animation can create real emotional impact, even in a short film. Awards like this also highlight just how much students contribute to the wider animation industry and how important emerging talent is to its future.

Best Character Animation — Video Game: South of Midnight

Developed by Compulsion Games, South of Midnight’s art style is inspired by stop motion animation. Characters were first sculpted as clay maquettes, giving the digital models a tactile, handcrafted feel.

The award recognised the work of Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider and Remi Edmond, whose character animation brings personality and physicality to the game’s world. It’s a great example of how traditional techniques and digital tools can work together.

Best Storyboarding — TV/Media: Love, Death + Robots

The Annie Award for Best Storyboarding is presented to a storyboard artist for creative excellence in animation. Storyboarding is a key stage in the pipeline. It translates script into visual language, defining pacing, camera movement, performance and emotional beats before full production begins.

This year, the award went to the TV series Love, Death + Robots. Specifically, Edgar Martins’ work on the episode How Zeke Got Religion demonstrates how powerful visual planning can shape the tone and clarity of a story. This category shows that story artists play a central role in bringing animated worlds to life.

Why the Annie Awards matter to future animators

The Annie Awards shine a spotlight on every corner of the animation industry. They celebrate not only final films but also the craft disciplines behind them, including character design, animation and storyboarding. These awards offer a clear message: animation is a broad, evolving and opportunity-rich field.

If you’re curious about where a career in animation can take you, check out our previous blog on career paths after studying animation.

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