OUTSTANDING ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Marona’s Fantastic Tale (Directed by Anca Damian)

Ride Your Wave (Directed by Masaaki Yuasa)

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Directed by Will Becher & Richard Phelan)

The Wolf House (Directed by Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña)

Wolfwalkers (Directed by Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart)

AND THE WINNER:

WOLFWALKERS (DIRECTED BY TOMM MOORE & ROSS STEWART)

This is the first win and nomination for Ross Stewart. Tomm Moore also wins his first prize after two previous nominations in animation for The Secret of Kells (2010) & Song of the Sea (2014).

Surprisingly with cinemas closed for the majority of the year and a lot of big studio animated films moving to 2021 it was a very strong year for animation. Most of the films I've nominated are not American made films and honestly it was so nice to see great films from teams I'm not as familiar with. Wolfwalkers ends up being my favourite among all animated films this year and once again shows how Cartoon Salon is knocking it out of the park getting better with each feature they release. It was such a nice experience taking this film in as it simply hit me in the right place in my heart as I fully connected to relationship drama going on in the film.

The narrative is one impressive part of this film but in focusing on the actual animation I'm amazed by how fresh and exciting each new scene was. The way in which the animation is constantly moving whenever characters are wolves is beautiful to behold and has stuck with me since seeing the film in December of 2020.