53rd Annie Awards
| Number | 53 |
| Award | Annie Awards |
| Award Link | Annie Award |
| Date | 2026-2-21 |
| Site | Royce Hall Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Organizer | ASIFA-Hollywood |
| Most Nominations | Film: Elio and KPop Demon Hunters (10) Television: Win or Lose (6) |
| Last | 52nd |
The 53rd Annual Annie Awards honoring excellence in the field of animation of 2025 is set to be held on February 21, 2026, at the University of California, Los Angeles's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, presenting awards in 32 competitive categories as well as four juried special awards.
The nominees were announced on January 5, 2026. In the film categories, Elio and KPop Demon Hunters led the nominations with 10 each, followed by Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and Zootopia 2, both with seven apiece. In the television categories, Win or Lose, led with six nominations, followed by Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight and Common Side Effects with five each.
Winners and nominees
Productions categories
| Best Feature | Best Feature — Independent | Best Special Production | Best Short Subject | Best Sponsored | Best TV/Media - Preschool | *Animated Short: "Trek" | Honkai: Star Rail (FLiiiP Design) *Fortnite x The Simpsons: "Apocalypse D'Oh | " (Gracie Films in Association with 20th Television Animation) *LouiMax Dreams of Being an Adult (Imagine Create Media Inc. in conjunction with Maileg APS) *Olipop Yeti (Screen Novelties & Passion Pictures) *Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – The Animation (SEGA of America in association with GXS Productions) | * Eva The Owlet: "Welcome to Treetopington" (Brown Bag Films / Scholastic Entertainment in association with Apple) * Kindergarten: The Musical: "Gotta Go | " (Oddbot Entertainment, Disney Branded Television) * The Tiny Chef Show: "Tiny Chef's Spooky Stump Spectacular" (Imagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions, and Nickelodeon Productions) * Wow Lisa: "Rainy Day" (Punkrobot) * Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: "I am Jackie Robinson" (9 Story Media Group, Brown Bag Films) | Best TV/Media – Children | Best TV/Media – Mature | Best TV/Media – Limited Series | Best Student Film |
|---|---|
| * Elio (Pixar Animation Studios) * KPop Demon Hunters (Sony Pictures Animation and Netflix) * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Maybe Movies, Ikki Films and GKIDS) * The Bad Guys 2 (DreamWorks Animation) * Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Animation Studios) | * A Magnificent Life (Mediawan, What the Prod and Bidibul Productions) * Arco (Remembers, MountainA France and France 3 Cinéma) * I Am Frankelda (Cinema Fantasma, Warner Bros. Discovery, Woo Films and Cine Vendaval) * Lost in Starlight (Netflix and Climax Studio) * Scarlet (Studio CHIZU) |
| *A Loud House Christmas Movie: Naughty or Nice (Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Jam Filled Entertainment) *Adult Swim's The Elephant (Titmouse, Inc. and Williams Street) *Not Just a Goof (Venturia Animation Studios for CNEK Films LLC) *Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical (WildBrain Studios in association with Apple) *The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland (Lupus Films and Universal Pictures Content Group) | *Cardboard (Locksmith Animation) *Ovary-Acting (Klipp og Lim, Jante Films, Apparat Filmproduktion AB) *Pillowzzz (Animoshe) *Snow Bear (The Art of Aaron Blaise) *The Girl Who Cried Pearls (National Film Board of Canada) |
| *My Melody & Kuromi: "All For Our Best Friend" (Sanrio Company for Netflix) *Spice Frontier: Escape From Veltegar: "Episode1" (Steamroller Animation) *Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: "Rise of the Night Ninja" (Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Point Grey Pictures) *The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball: "The Rewrite" (Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe) *Wylde Pak: "Sungandeul" (Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Jam Filled Entertainment) | * Bob's Burgers: "Grand Pre-Pre-Pre Opening" (20th Television) * Common Side Effects: "Pilot" (Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions) * Haha, You Clowns: "Duncan Holds a Baby" (Williams Street) * Il Baracchino: "Claudia entra in un caffè" (Luckyred and Megadrago) * South Park: "Sermon on the ‘Mount" (Comedy Central) |
| *Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight: "Episode III" (Netflix, Banijay Productions France and Légende Films) *Eyes of Wakanda: "Into the Lion's Den" (Marvel Studios Animation) *Marvel Zombies: "Episode 2" (Marvel Studios Animation) *Star Wars: Visions – Volume 3: "BLACK" (David Production) *Win Or Lose: "Home" (Pixar Animation Studios) | *A Sparrow's Song – Tobias Eckerlin, director and producer (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Animationsinstitut) *Acrobats – Eloïse Alluyn, Hugo Danet, Anna Despinoy, Antonin Guerci, Alexandre Marzin, Shali Reddy, directors (Gobelins) *Jour de vent – Martin Chailloux, Ai Kim Crespin, Elise Golfouse, Chloé Lab, Hugo Taillez, Camille Truding, directors (École des Nouvelles Images) *The Undying Pain of Existence – Oscar Jacobson, director; Franz Rügamer, Nadiia Yunatska, producers (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Animationsinstitut) *TRASH – Maxime Crançon, Alexis Le Ral, directors; Robin Delaporte, Romain Fleischer, Mattéo Durand, producers (ESMA) |
Individual achievement categories
| Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production | Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production | Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Video Game | Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Editorial in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Editorial in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production | Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production | Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production |
|---|---|---|---|
| * Marvel Zombies: "Episode 4" – Emma Badia, Tristan Fairclough, Jimmy Dumont, Sheng Hung, and Arth Vasavada (Disney+) * Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age: "The Big Freeze" – Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Shuleman , Benedikt Roettger, and Kevin Tarpinian (Apple TV) * Spice Frontier: "Episode 1" – Effects Department (Steamroller Animation) * Star Wars: Visions – Volume 3: "The Bird of Paradise" – Takashi Okamoto, Kohei Yamamoto, Genyo Sasaki, Chizuru Nakamura, and Erika Matsui (Disney+) * WondLa: "Lost" – FX Team (Apple TV) | * Elio – Ferdi Scheepers, Shaun Galinak, Alyssa Lee, Nate Skeen, and Gary Bruins * In Your Dreams – Dmitriy Kolesnik, Stephen Paschk, David Sellares, and Stephanie McNair * KPop Demon Hunters – Filippo Macari, Nicola Finizio, Simon Lewis, Naoki Kato, and Daniel La Chapelle * The Bad Guys 2 – Landon Gray, Michael Losure, Zachary Glynn, Chris Wombold, and Olivier Malric * Zootopia 2 – Le Joyce Tong, Shamintha Kalamba Arachchi, Dimitre Berberov, Chris Carignan, and Cristiana Covone | ||
| * Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight: "Episode III" – Floriane Caseiro (Netflix) * Forevergreen – Brendan Gottlieb (Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears) * Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical – Chris Derochie (Apple TV) * The Simpsons – Nik Ranieri (Fox) * Win or Lose – Alli Sadegiani (Disney+) | * Elio – Jonah Sidhom * KPop Demon Hunters – Ryusuke Furuya * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Juliette Laurent * The Bad Guys 2 – Ludovic Bouancheau * Zootopia 2 – Tony Smeed | ||
| * A Minecraft Movie – Kevin Estey, Anthony McIndoe, Jade Lorier, Caroline Ting, and Luisma Lavin Peredo * Captain America: Brave New World – Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, Andrew William Park, Marco Röth, Paul Seyb, and Thien Ly * How To Train Your Dragon – Kayn Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Meena Ibrahim, Nathan McConnel, and Nick Tripodi * Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age – Adrien Annesley, Alvise Avati, Riyad Chalakkara, Daniel Mizuguchi, and Liam Russell (Apple TV) * Superman – Loic Mireault, Michael Elder, Philipp Winterstein, Victor Dinis, and Diego de Paula Pereira Batista | * Bye Sweet Carole – Chris Darril * Death Stranding 2: On the Beach – Hideo Kojima, Masaaki Kawata, and PlayStation Studios XDEV * Ghost of Yōtei – Sucker Punch Productions Animation Team * Keeper – Zach Baharov, Alex Turner, Jerry Matsko, Anne-Sophie Savard, and Geneviève Desbiens * South of Midnight – Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, and Remi Edmond | ||
| * Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight: "Episode IV" – Borja Montoro (Netflix) * Bat-Fam: "A Knight at the Movies" – Benjamin Tong (Amazon Prime Video) * Love, Death & Robots: "400 Boys" – Robert Valley (Netflix) * Wednesdays with Gramps – Seth St. Pierre (DreamWorks Animation) * Win or Lose: "Home" – Lou Hamou-Lhadj (Disney+) | * Elio – Matt Nolte, Yingzong Xin, James Woods, Kaleb Rice, and Bob Pauley * Fixed – Craig Kellman * KPop Demon Hunters – Scott Watanabe and Ami Thompson * The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants – Adam Paloian, Thaddeus Couldron, and Alvi Ramirez * The Twits – Kei Acedera, Tristan Poulain, Jules Rigolle, Fernando Peque, and Remi Salmon | ||
| * Common Side Effects: "Cliff's Edge" – Vincent Tsui (Adult Swim) * Dan Da Dan: "Clash | Space Kaiju vs. Giant Robot | " – Fuga Yamashiro and Abel Góngora (Netflix) * Not a Box: "It's a Boat" – Siri Melchior (Apple TV) * Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: "Rise of the Night Ninja" – JJ Conway and Kevin Molina-Ortiz (Paramount+) * The Quinta's Ghost – James A. Castillo (Martirio Films & Illusorium Films) | * Arco – Ugo Bienvenu, Adam Sillard, and Anaëlle Saba * Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – Tatsuya Yoshihara * KPop Demon Hunters – Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han * Scarlet – Mamoru Hosoda |
| * Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight: "Episode III" – David Boyadjian (Netflix) * Common Side Effects: "Raid" – Tony Christopherson and Joie Lim (Adult Swim) * Haunted Hotel: "The Acolytes of Abaddon" – Benjamin Morse, Benjamin Martian, and Marshall Wetta (Netflix) * Invincible: "I Thought You'd Never Shut Up" – Luke Asa Guidici, Matt Michael, Lea Carosella, and Liam Johnson (Amazon Prime Video) * Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch: "Up From the Grave" – Thomas Belair, Nicolas Bourgeois, and Julien Perez (Netflix) | * Arco – Nathan Jacquard * Elio – Anna Wolitzky, Steve Bloom, Noah Newman, Greg Snyder, and Ben Morris * KPop Demon Hunters – KPop Demon Hunters Editorial Team * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Ludovic Versace * Olivia & the Clouds – Tomás Pichardo Espaillat | ||
| * Common Side Effects: "Lakeshore Limited" – Nicolas Snyder (Adult Swim) * Devil May Cry: "The First Circle" – Power Glove and Alex Seaver (Netflix) * Éiru – Leo Pearson and Ceara Conway (Cartoon Saloon) * Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical – Ben Folds, Jeff Morrow, Alan Zachary, and Michael Weiner (Apple TV) * Win or Lose: "Mixed Signals" – Ramin Djawadi, Shane Eli, and Johnny Pakfar (Disney+) | * Arco – Arnaud Toulon * Elio – Rob Simonsen * KPop Demon Hunters – KPop Demon Hunters Music Team * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Mari Fukuhara * Zootopia 2 – Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin, and Michael Giacchino | ||
| * Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight: "Episode II" – Aurélien Prédal (Netflix) * Forevergreen – Jeremy Spears and Gregory Culp (Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears) * Love, Death & Robots: "How Zeke Got Religion" – Gigi Cavenago (Netflix) * ParaNorman: The Thrifting – Thibault Leclercq, Santiago Montiel, Jung Woonyoung, and Stephanie Bray-Lee (Laika) * Wednesdays with Gramps – Frederic Stewart (DreamWorks Animation) | * Elio – Harley Jessup, Ernesto Nemesio, Maria Lee, Kristian Norelius, and Kyle Jones * KPop Demon Hunters – Helen Chen, Dave Bleich, Wendell Dalit, Scott Watanabe, and Celine Kim * The Bad Guys 2 – Luc Desmarchelier and Floriane Marchix * The Twits – Estefania Pantoja, Alexandre Diboine, Clement Dartigues, Fernando Peque, and Remi Salmon * Zootopia 2 – Cory Loftis and Limei Z. Hshieh | ||
| * Love, Death & Robots: "How Zeke Got Religion" – Edgar Martins (Netflix) * ParaNorman: The Thrifting – Coleton Palmer, Katherine Jay Myong, and Heewon Jeong (Laika) * Snow Bear – Aaron Blaise (Aaron Blaise Studios) * Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: "Rise of the Night Ninja" – Richard Chi, Matthew Kim, Sheldon Vella, and Lyndsay Simpson (Paramount+) * Win or Lose: "Home" – Esteban Bravo (Disney+) | * Arco – Ugo Bienvenu * Elio – Tony Rosenast * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Nicolas Pawlowski * The Bad Guys 2 – Anthony Holden and Young Ki Yoon * Zootopia 2 – Hikari Toriumi | ||
| * Dan Mintz – Bob's Burgers: "Don't Worry Be Hoopy" as Tina Belcher (Fox) * Erika Henningsen – Hazbin Hotel: "Hazbin Hotel: Behind Closed Doors" as Charlie Morningstar (Amazon Prime Video) * Abbi Jacobson – Long Story Short: "Shira Can't Cook" as Shira Schwooper * Zach Hadel – Smiling Friends: "Shmaloogles" as Evil Wizard * Alkaio Thiele – The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball: "The Amadain" as Gumball Watterson | * Lil Rel Howery – Dog Man as Chief * Remy Edgerly – Elio as Glordon * Craig Robinson – In Your Dreams as Baloney Tony * Arden Cho – KPop Demon Hunters as Rumi * Maitreyi Ramakrishnan – The Twits as Beesha | ||
| * #1 Happy Family USA: "Nine Ten" – Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady (Amazon Prime Video) * Adult Swim's The Elephant – Pendleton Ward, Ian Jones-Quartey, Rebecca Sugar, and Patrick McHale (Adult Swim) * Common Side Effects: "Pilot" – Joe Bennett and Steve Hely (Adult Swim) * Lulu is a Rhinoceros – Allison Flom (Apple TV) * Win or Lose: "Pickle" – Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates (Disney+) | * Elio – Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones * KPop Demon Hunters – Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang, and Chris Appelhans * Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Liane-Cho Han, Aude Py, Maïlys Vallade, and Eddine Noël * Scarlet – Mamoru Hosoda * Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush |
Juried awards
[[June Foray Award]]
- For "significant and benevolent impact to the animation community":
- Producer Sandy Rabins, "for the AnimAID effort to assist and support those in the animation industry who were affected by the L.A. Wildfires"
[[Annie Awards for Special Achievement in Animation|The Special Achievement Award]]
- "Acknowledging unique and outstanding achievement not recognized within the existing award category structure":
- The annual LightBox Expo event
Ub Iwerks Award
- For "technical advancement affecting the animation industry":
[[Winsor McCay Award|Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Awards]]
- "In recognition of lifetime or career contributions":
Multiple awards and nominations
Films
The following films received multiple nominations:
| Nominations | Film |
|---|---|
| 10 | Elio |
| KPop Demon Hunters | |
| 7 | Little Amélie or the Character of Rain |
| Zootopia 2 | |
| 5 | Arco |
| The Bad Guys 2 | |
| 3 | Scarlet |
| The Twits | |
| 2 | In Your Dreams |
Television/Broadcast
The following shows received multiple nominations:
References
- Milligan, Mercedes, January 5, 2026, Annie Award Nominations: 'Elio' & 'KPop Demon Hunters' Lead the Race, 'Win Or Lose' Tops TV Nods, live, January 5, 2026, January 5, 2026, Animation Magazine
- Lewis, Hilary, January 5, 2026, 2026 Annie Awards Nominations: 'Elio,' 'KPop Demon Hunters' Lead Film Nods, January 5, 2026, The Hollywood Reporter, January 6, 2026
- Annie Awards: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ & ‘Elio’ Lead Film Nominations
- ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ and ‘Elio’ Lead Annie Awards Nominations With 10 Nods Each
- 53rd Annual Annie Awards Nominations Announced
- ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ ‘Elio’ Lead 53rd Annie Award Feature Nominations With 10 Nods Each
- 53rd ANNIE AWARD™ NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED TODAY!, January 5, 2026, Annie Awards, January 6, 2026