Best Independent Feature Category Added to Annie Awards
A new category for best independent animated feature has been added to the 2015 Annie Awards, which joins the other 35 categories, including production, individual achievement and special juried awards.
“The best feature-independent category is designed to highlight and award feature films with a smaller release strategy,” said ASIFA-Hollywood executive director Frank Gladstone.
To be eligible to receive this award, an animated feature must:
- be over 45 minutes in length,
- have a total theatrical distribution in the United States of fewer than 1000 screens,
- have originally been released and verifiably screened in Los Angeles County for five consecutive days between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015, or
- if not screened in LA, have placed or won a best animated feature award in 2015 at any of the following international animation festivals: Annecy, Ottawa, Hiroshima or Zagreb.
Productions that were released in the U.S. between Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2015 are eligible for award consideration. Exceptions are commercials, short subjects, special projects and student films, which can qualify with or without U.S. releases.
A list of all the categories and rules are now available at the Annie Awards website.
The call for entries for the 43rd annual Annie Awards begins September 1. The Annie Awards ceremony will be held February 6, 2016 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.