Awards Updates: LAAF Winners, Inaugural Velma Winners Announced

Last Sunday, December 8, the Los Angeles Animation Festival (LAAF) presented its Awards Night celebration to a packed hall at the Eastwood Performing Arts Center in Hollywood.

Triple winner The Mayfly, directed by Sue Perrotto, won awards for Character-based 2D, Best Director and Best of the Fest. First Place for Student Dramatic Short and Best Student Director went to USC filmmaker Ziyan Zhou’s 2D short Choice. Hunter Frye and Claudia Celio, of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, won Best First-Time Directors and Silver Student Dramatic Short for Forgive and Regret. All three were awarded software prizes from festival sponsor Toon Boom.

Other key prizes went to Brock Gallagher’s Haunted Cupcake, winner of Character-based CGI; Jasmine, Irish director Tom Caulfield’s timely Humanitarian Award-winning film about the Syrian Civil War as seen through the eyes of a child; and Best Comedy Short The Loving Couple from Canadian director Mhairi Kerr.

“Every year the standard of animation, both technically and artistically, gets better and better. But this year it was exceptionally high. It’s an honor to showcase such inspiring work,” states festival co-director Miles Flanagan.

The full list of winners can be found at blog.laafest.com.

 

---

 

The recently launched Velma Awards, presented by The Rainbow Project (co-founded by Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee) to recognize outstanding queer storytelling in children’s and youth media, announced their inaugural class of honorees. Notably, the pulled episode of Marvel animated series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur was recognized alongside other standout animated projects.

“Statistically, the number of characters who are LGBTQIA+ is incredibly small, but the feeling of it for people who are often, even in theory, allies is that there’s been so much material out there. It’s this world where a little bit more representation starts to feel like it’s everywhere — like there’s a lot — to people. But the dangers of losing this inclusive content are so clear,” Nee told The Hollywood Reporter. “LGBTQIA+ youth are not going away — they’re here as they’ve always been — and continuing to build shows where people who live in our world are baked into these universes is a deeply important part of continuing to make sure people are safe and welcome in this world.”

Animated winners include:

• Legacy Award – Steven Universe (Cartoon Network)
• Best Episode (Period!) That Also Never Saw the Light of Day – Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, “The Gatekeeper” (Disney Channel)
• Best Episode for Storytime with Drag Queens – The Bravest Knight, “Cedric & the Three Ogres” (Hulu)
• Best New Nonbinary Cast Member – The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish, “The Wellsington Hotellsington” (Nickelodeon) – Winn Harper (voiced by Iris Menas)
• Best Guest Star Extravaganza – Monster High, “Monster Fest” Halloween Special (Nickelodeon)
• Best Celebration of the Complex Queer Family Tree – Firebuds, “Balancing Act” (Disney Junior)
• Best Requited Queer Crush – Primos, “Summer of Heart Eyes” (Disney Channel)
• Best Queer Relationship That’s Just a Plain Ol’ Relationship – Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 2 (Netflix)
• Best Wedding Before You and Your New Wife Go Fight Insurgents – The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos, “The Red Wedding” (Netflix)
• Best Helping My Dad Propose to My Other Dad – Let’s Go, Bananas!, “The Big Pop / A Very Bananas Wedding” (Cartoon Network)

The full list of winners can be found at The Hollywood Reporter.