It already has taken Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes and PGA Awards, and tonight Inside Out scored the big prize at the 43rd Annie Awards. This win from its peer community — along with nine others — puts Pixar’s pic and its $856.8 million worldwide box office solidly in the front-runner spot for this year’s Academy Awards on February 28.

“Sorry if you guys are sick of seeing us up here,” said director Peter Docter on a night that saw the Pixar pic dominate at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Docter also won for writing and directing the film about the primary emotions of an 11-year-old girl, which came in with a leading 14 nominations from ASIFA-Hollywood. On a weekend that finds DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 3 topping the box office again, the other Annie contenders for Best Animated Feature this year were fellow Pixar offering The Good Dinosaur, Shaun The Sheep Movie, Fox’s The Peanuts Movie and Anomalisa, co-directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson.

The Good Dinosaur and The Peanuts Movie are not up for the Oscar later this month but Boy & The World and Studio Ghibi’s When Marnie Was There are. The latter duo was among the nominees tonight in the new Best Animated Feature – Independent category.

While 2015 was a rare exception, the big winner at the Annies has also taken Oscar gold in nine of 14 years since the Best Animated Feature category was introduced at the Academy Awards. Last year, DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon 2 won at the Annies but, in a notable upset, Disney’s Big Hero 6 got the Academy Award. Which, of course, raises the question – will this year see a return to tradition or another upset?

On the TV side, stalwart The Simpsons won the big prize of Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production. Disney’s Mickey Mouse scooped three Annie Awards, and Bob’s Burgers cooked up a pair.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Animated Feature

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Director: Pete Docter

Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Gravity Falls

Episode: “Northwest Mansion Mystery”

Disney Television Animation

Director: Matt Braly

Boy and the World is nominated also for Best Animated Picture at the Academy Awards. This is the new Annies category introduced this year.

Best Animated Feature – Independent

Boy and the World

Filme de Papel

The Simpsons boss Matt Groening says he did watch GOP debate tonight and the Annies “is a lot less cartoon-y.” Needless to say, the audience in Royce Hall loved that.

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

The Simpsons

Episode: “Halloween of Horror”

Gracie Films in Association with 20th Century Fox Television

Johannesburg native Sharlto Copley and Michael-Leon Wooley riff on Copley being African-American. The bit is funny but goes overlong. Wooley wraps it by declaring, “Black cartoons matter.”

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Children

Wander Over Yonder

Episode: “The Breakfast”

Disney Television Animation

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children

Tumble Leaf

Episode: “Mirror”

Amazon Studios and Bix Pix Entertainment

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Writer: Pete Docter

Writer: Meg LeFauve

Writer: Josh Cooley

Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Bob’s Burgers

Episode: “The Hauntening”

Twentieth Century Fox Television/Bento Box Entertainment

Writer: Steven Davis

Writer: Kelvin Yu

There were two cast members from Inside Out up for the Feature Voice Acting Award: Amy Poehler and winner Phyllis Smith. The latter’s Sadness obviously made a lot of people very happy.

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Cast: Phyllis Smith

Character: Sadness

Nice to see Bob’s Burgers getting some Annie love tonight . The show has a lot of animation competition on Fox (hiya, The Simpsons and Family Guy) but never fails to shine with wit.

She’s not just the most high-energy presenter tonight, Kristen Schaal was, to paraphrase her acceptance speech, “killing it” as a winner too. Make Schaal the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler of the Annies.

Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Bob’s Burgers

Episode: “Hawk & Chick”

Twentieth Century Fox Television/Bento Box Entertainment

Starring: Kristen Schaal

Character: Louise Belcher

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial

Man and Dog

Psyop

Best Animated Special Production

He Named Me Malala

Parkes-MacDonald / Little Door

Another win for Inside Out? Start getting ready to place those Best Animated Feature bets, folks.

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Production Design: Ralph Eggleston

Production Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show

Episode: “Peabody’s Parents/Galileo”

DreamWorks Animation Televsion

Production Design: Kevin Dart

Production Design: Sylvia Liu

Production Design: Chris Turnham

Production Design: Eastwood Wong

Kenny: “When are we gonna start calling these awards the Pixies?

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Animator: Allison Rutland

Character: All Characters

Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Dragons: Race to the Edge

Episode: “Have Dragon Will Travel, Part 1”

DreamWorks Animation Television

Character Animator: Chi-Ho Chan

Character: Heather, Windshear, Dagur, Savage, Hiccup, Toothless, Berserkers

Laraine Newman is mortified as Kenny goes with Boo-Boo saying, “Gee, Yogi, I don’t think you should rape Leonardo DiCaprio — Mister Ranger won’t like it.”

Tom Kenny on The Revenant clip: “Nothing like a little bear rape to get us back into the mood. A little interspecies romance there.” It contrasted with the joyful music playing over clip.

Character Animation in a Live Action Production

The Revenant – Judy

Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Anonymous Content, M Productions, Appian Way, RatPac-Dune Entertainment

Animation Supervisor: Matthew Shumway

Lead Digital Artist: Adrian Millington

Digital Artist: Blaine Toderian

Digital Artist: Alexander Poei

Digital Artist: Kevin Lan

Character Animation in a Video Game

Evolve

2K Games

Character Animator: David Gibson

Character: Daisy, Goliath, Kraken

Dozens of hands in Royce Hall go up when Joe Ranft’s brother asks who had been influenced or had their lives touched by Joe.

Final Winsor recipient is Joe Ranft, the Pixar original who died in 2005. He was head of story on Pixar’s first two films, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life and also worked on Monsters Inc. and Cars. He also worked on such pics as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

Next Winsor recipient to Phil Roman, the six-time Emmy winner whose credits include The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Garfield & Friends, The Critic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the Peanuts holiday specials.

First Winsor McCay Award of the night to Isao Takahata, the Japanese filmmaker behind such films as Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya — an Oscar nominee — and Only Yesterday.

Best Animated Short Subject

World of Tomorrow

Don Hertzfeldt

Animated Effects in an Animated Production

The Good Dinosaur

Pixar Animation Studios

Effects Supervisor: Jon Reisch

Effects Lead: Stephen Marshall

Volumetric Clouds Architect: Magnus Wrenninge

Development & Effects Artist: Michael Hall

Effects Technical Lead: Michael K. O’Brien

Animated Effects in a Live Action Production

Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron – Sokovia Destruction

Marvel Studios

Creature Sim Supervisor: Michael Balog|

Creature Simulation Lead: Jim Van Allen

Effects Simulation Supervisor: Florent Andorra

Effects Lead: George Kaltenbrunner

That’s the fourth win for Inside Out — are we seeing the beginning of a sweep? Still early in the night but a good start for the Disney-Pixar blockbuster.

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Composer: Michael Giacchino

Music in an Animated Television/ Broadcast Production

Disney Mickey Mouse

Episode: “¡Feliz Cumpleaños!”

Disney Television Animation

Composer: Christopher Willis

The Annies is going a variety of hosts this year but they should totally get Kristen Schaal to front the awards next year. The Last Man On Earth star is owning this crowd right now.

Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas

Episode: “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas”

Screen Novelties/Warner Bros Animation

Character Designer: Craig Kellman

Character: Buddy, Jovie, Walter Hobbs, Michael Hobbs, Mr. Greenway, Chadwick & Matthews, Santa Claus, Background Characters

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Character Art Director: Albert Lozano

Character: All Characters

Character Artist: Chris Sasaki

Character: All Characters

Don Hahn receives the June Foray Award, named for the founder of the Annie Awards. Among a long line of credits, he worked as an Associate Producer on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, was a producer on The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast (which was the first animated pic to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars) and most recently was an EP on Disney’s Maleficent.

Hahn got a big laugh when he thanked the crowd for “skipping the Republican debate to be here … difficult choice” He got an even bigger round of applause when he noted that women have directed some of animation’s biggest movies – “more of that,” Hahn said. The producer got another huge laugh when he said in jest that he’d seen Jeffrey Katzenberg get mauled by an adult male lion.

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Nominee: Kevin Nolting

Editorial in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Disney Mickey Mouse

Episode: “Coned”

Disney Television Animation

Nominee: Illya Owens

That’s the first win tonight for any of the pics up for Best Animated Feature.

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios

Storyboard Artist: Tony Rosenast

The Annies may have just kicked off but the crowd inside Royce Hall is ready to blow the roof off this place, so enthused.

As one of the first presenters, Charlie Kaufman noted that the play that Anomalisa is based on was actually first performed on the stage at Royce Hall over a decade ago.

Storyboarding in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Disney Mickey Mouse

Episode: “¡Feliz Cumpleaños!”

Disney Television Animation

Storyboard Artist: Alonso Ramirez Ramos

Best Student Film

ed

Taha Neyestani