2023 Irish Animation Awards Announces Record Number of Nominees

The nominees for the 2023 Irish Animation Awards (irishanimationawards.ie) have been announced today (Wednesday, April 26) by Animation Ireland, the trade association for Irish animation studios. This year’s ceremony will be held in Galway on Saturday, May 27.

In a record year for the Irish animation sector, 53 Irish productions were nominated for an award. Leading the way with seven nominations is Cartoon’s Saloon’s feature film produced for Netflix, My Father’s Dragon, directed by the Oscar-nominated Nora Twomey. The preschool series Odo, produced for Channel 5 by Sixteen South, has six nominations and RTÉ’s preschool series Ray of Sunshine, produced by Daily Madness, has five nominations.

The biennial awards are the premier event in the Irish animation calendar and celebrate the creative brilliance and talent of the Irish animation sector. The ceremony will take place in person for the first time since the COVID pandemic.

“It has been another superb year for Irish animation and we now have a record number of Irish productions being nominated. There is nominated work from Oscar and BAFTA winners alongside stunning work from student producers, and the quality across the board is immense. It’s really heartening that the future remains bright for Irish animation,” said Animation Ireland’s Chief Executive, Ronan McCabe.

“It will be great to be back having our awards in person again for the first time since 2019 due to the pandemic. We are running a full day event with industry panels and discussions taking place in the morning, followed by the awards ceremony in the evening. I must also extend a huge thank you to all of our other sponsors who play such an important role in supporting Irish animation and making this event happen.”

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and RTÉ are the headline sponsors for the 2023 Irish Animation Awards. This year’s other sponsors include Northern Ireland Screen, Coimisiún na Meán, Creative Europe Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Nickelodeon and Milkshake.

Winners of each category will receive a statuette designed by animator, filmmaker and teacher Eimhín McNamara. The statuette resembles a Phenakistoscope, an early animation device used to create an illusion of motion.

The nominees are…

Best Animated Preschool Series

• Ada Twist, Scientist
• Circle Square
• Kiva Can Do!
• Odo
• Ray Of Sunshine

Best Animated Kids Series 6+

• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese
• El Deafo
• Karma’s World
• Tales from Dún Draíochta
• The Cuphead Show!

Best Animated Short Film

• Bardo
• Lady Betty
• Memento Mori
• Nana’s Terrifying Zoom Call
• Soul Office

Best International Short Film

• Cornucopia
• Cha Cha
• GMAN: a qixia in space
• Signal
• The Stranger

Best Writer for Preschool Animation

• Fia’s Fairies “Chick A Bye Baby”
• Happy The Hoglet “Happy Hogfairy”
• Kiva Can Do! “Beach Ready Yeti”
• Odo “Doodle Song”
• Ray Of Sunshine “Under The Weather”

Best Writer for an Animated Series

• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese “Junked”
• Tales from Dun Draiochta “Lusmore and the Rapping Fairy”
• Tales from Dun Draiochta “The Scottish Giant”
• The Royals Next Door “Royal Re-Enactment”

Best Animation for Apps, Games & Interactive

• Cat Burglar
• VOOKS- Life Of Pele
• VOOKS- The Solar System with Ellen
• Waggle

Best Art Direction & Design

• Ada Twist, Scientist
• Bardo
• Empty Little People
• Odo
• The Imagination Machine

Best Director of an Animated Series

• El Deafo
• Karma’s World
• Odo
• Ray Of Sunshine
• Transformers BotBots

Best Animation Sequence

• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese
• Coming Home
• My Father’s Dragon
• The Cuphead Show!
• Gas Networks “Tommy” Promo

Best Music

• Critters TV
• Empty Little People
• My Father’s Dragon
• Ray Of Sunshine
• Red Rabbit

Best Sound Design

• Bardo
• Memento Mori
• Monster Hunters: Legends of the Guild
• My Father’s Dragon
• My Little Pony: A New Generation

Best Irish Feature or Special

• Adam Saves Christmas
• Pinkalicious And Peterrific
• My Father’s Dragon
• The Ghastly Ghoul

Best Innovation in Animation

• A Thing Called Joy
• Adventureverse
• Face2Face – Charles & Camilla
• Fia’s Fairies
• Myth Masters

Best New Irish IP

• Alva’s World
• Happy The Hoglet
• Odo
• The Imagination Machine
• The Wee Littles

Best Student Film

• Fall of the Ibis King
• His Dancing Shoes
• Small Hours
• Small Makings of a Storm
• Witch of the Woods

Best Editing

• Ada Twist, Scientist
• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese
• El Deafo
• Happy The Hoglet
• My Father’s Dragon

Best Storyboarding

• El Deafo
• Karma’s World
• My Father’s Dragon
• Ray Of Sunshine
• Transformers: BotBots

Best VFX

• Mimi’s World
• My Fathers Dragon
• The Cuphead Show!
• The Imagination Machine
• Wendell & Wild

Animation Ireland is the trade association for Ireland’s animation studios, representing 42 member studios, who employ more than two thousand people on the island of Ireland. The sector has seen meteoric growth in recent years, with the industry now generating almost €200 million for the economy annually, as Irish animation projects are viewed in over 180 countries worldwide. animationireland.com