Disney’s box office smash “Frozen 2” and Laika’s lesser-known “Missing Link” each earned a leading eight nominations Monday for the 47th annual Annie Awards that honor the year’s best in animation.
Both films were nominated for best feature film, along with DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” Netflix’s “Klaus” and Pixar Animation’s “Toy Story 4.”
“Frozen 2” also earned a best director nomination for Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. “Missing Link” director Chris Butler and “Klaus” director Sergio Pablos also earned nominations, along with Jeremy Clapin for directing Netflix’s “I Lost My Body” and Makoto Shinkai for directing Toho Co.’s “Weathering With You.”
Josh Gad, who provides the voice of the snowman Olaf in “Frozen 2,” was nominated for best voice acting in a feature film. Also nominated were Tony Hale for “Toy Story 4,” Tenzing Norgay Trainor for “Abominable,” Richard Horvitz for “Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus” and Jenny Slate for “The Secret Life of Pets 2.”
The Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society, will be presented Jan. 25 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
In addition to the year’s honorees, a series of special awards will be presented during the ceremony. Windsor McCay Awards for career achievement will be presented to Satoshi Kon, the late Japanese film director, animator and screenwriter; Henry Selick, a stop-motion director/producer best known for “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “James and the Giant Peach” and “Coraline”; and Ron Clements and John Musker, considered one of the top directing teams at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Jeanette Bonds, co-founder and director of GLAS Animation, will receive the society’s June Foray Award while Jim Blinn, a computer graphics expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will receive the Ub Iwerks Award.