On the TV side, Disney’s Mickey Mouse shorts dominated the voting categories with a surprising six wins. Also, The Simpsons won best general audience TV program, Gravity Falls won TV program for children, Tumble Leaf won TV program for preschool. The latter series, which was produced for Amazon, marks the first time that an Internet streaming series has won a TV prize at the Annies.

Disney’s latest short Feast, directed by Patrick Osborne, won the short subject category, while Jason Rayner’s My Big Brother, a film from Savannah College of Art and Design, won the best student film. My Big Brother premiered online last year as one of the winners of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival.

The thing that perhaps stood out most to me as I watched the ceremony via livestream was the near complete absence of women from the stage. More women actually presented awards than accepted them as winners. Among the forty-four winners of awards in the individual achievement and juried categories, 41 of them were men (93%).

Yes, a greater percentage of men work in animation, but the divide is not nearly so great as suggested by the imbalance at tonight’s awards. To put it another way, the Annie Award voters felt that just three women made exemplary contributions to animation throughout all of 2014. There’s simply no defense for this kind of patriarchy in our industry.

But it’s not just the lack of women that caused a raised eyebrow. Only two of the 44 individual/juried winners appeared to be Hispanic (and those two were a husband-and-wife team winning the same award) and zero winners were African-American. This isn’t about political correctness; it’s about the basic expectation that all the work created in the industry will be considered and that the finest work will be rewarded, regardless of its creator’s ethnicity or gender. The animation industry that I know is far more diverse and vibrant than the select group of people who were recognized tonight.

The point about the industry’s diversity was made most poignantly by Lee Mendelson, one of the Winsor McCay award honorees. Mendelson, who produced all of the classic Charlie Brown TV specials, made a plea for immigration reform during his speech, pointing out that the Peanuts specials would have never happened without Bill Melendez, the Mexican-born director of Peanuts animation. Mendelson also gave a shout-out to veteran animator Phil Roman, the Mexican-American animator whose studio, Film Roman, produced The Simpsons for many years.

A complete list of winners is below:

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

Best Animated Feature



How to Train Your Dragon 2 – DreamWorks Animation

Best Animated Special Production

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey – Voyager Pictures LLC

Best Animated Short Subject

Feast - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial

Flight of the Stories – Aardman Animations

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

Tumble Leaf - Amazon Studios

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children’s Audience

Gravity Falls – Disney Television Animation

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production

The Simpsons – The Simpsons

Best Animated Video Game

Valiant Hearts: The Great War – Ubisoft

Best Student Film

My Big Brother - Jason Rayner

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES

Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in an Animated Production

Michael Kaschalk, Peter DeMund, David Hutchins, Henrik Falt, John Kosnik – Big Hero 6 – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action Production

Steve Avoujageli, Atsushi Ikarashi, Pawel Grochola, Paul Waggoner, Viktor Lundqvist – Edge of Tomorrow – Sony Pictures Imageworks

Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Justin Nichols – Wander Over Yonder – Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Feature Production

Fabio Lignini – How to Train Your Dragon 2 - DreamWorks Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Daniel Barrett, Paul Story, Eteuati Tema, Alessandro Bonora, Dejan Momcilovic – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Weta Digital

Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Video Game

Mike Mennillo – Assassin’s Creed Unity – Ubisoft

Outstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Benjamin Balistreri – Wander Over Yonder - Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Paul Sullivan, Sandra Equihua, Jorge R. Gutierrez – The Book of Life – Reel FX

Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Aaron Springer – Disney Mickey Mouse - Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Dean DeBlois – How to Train Your Dragon 2 – DreamWorks Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Christopher Willis – Disney Mickey Mouse – Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated Feature Production

John Powell, Jónsi – How to Train Your Dragon 2 – DreamWorks Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Narina Sokolova – Mickey Shorts - Disney

Outstanding Achievement, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Paul Lasaine, Tom McClure & August Hall – The Boxtrolls – Focus Features/Laika

Outstanding Achievement, Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Joaquim Dos Santos – Legend of Korra –Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Outstanding Achievement, Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Truong “Tron” Son Mai – How to Train Your Dragon 2 – DreamWorks Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Bill Farmer as the voices of Goofy and Grandma – Disney Mickey Mouse – Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Sir Ben Kingsley as the voice of Archibald Snatcher – The Boxtrolls – Focus Features/Laika

Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Darrick Bachman – Disney Mickey Mouse – Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Phil Lord & Christopher Miller – The Lego Movie – Warner Bros. Pictures

Outstanding Achievement, Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production

Illya Owens – Disney Mickey Mouse – Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement, Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

John K. Carr – How to Train Your Dragon 2 – DreamWorks Animation

JURIED AWARDS

Winsor McCay Award (for Lifetime Achievement)

Didier Brunner, Don Lusk and Lee Mendelson

June Foray Award (for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation)

Charles Solomon

Ub Iwerks (for technical advancement that has made a significant impact on the art or industry of animation)

DreamWorks Animation’s Apollo Software

Special Achievement Award (recognizing the unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation)

The Walt Disney Family Museum