The Bird and The Whale
The 2019 Irish Animation Awards ceremony was held in Dingle last night and the big winner was Paper Panther Productions, who scooped up three awards, including Best Animation and Best Design & Art Direction for the stunning The Bird and The Whale. They also won the Best Newcomer Award, a new category introduced this year.
Among the other major winners on the night were Cartoon Saloon for The Breadwinner (Best Feature) and Brown Bag Films for Vampirina, which won Best Animated Preschool Series (up to 6 years) and Best Writer for an Animated Series.
Boulder Media and Windmill Lane’s Danger Mouse was another outstanding success, bringing home three awards for Best Director, Best Music and Best Sound Design. Nora Twomey, the Oscar nominated director of Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner also came home with the prestigious Murakami Award.
The awards this year was the biggest yet for animation Ireland, with four new awards categories and a huge increase in the number of entrants. There are 16 categories in total, up from 12 in 2017 and one of our new awards is the Kids’ Choice Award, with the winner being chosen by primary school children across the country. Another new category is Best Newcomer, which according to , Animation Ireland Chairperson Moe Honan ‘’shows the continuing increase in the amount of new studios being set up. The new award categories and the sheer volume of entries reflect the substantial growth in the sector over the past two years.’’
Winners of each category received a statuette designed by animator, film maker and teacher Eimhin McNamara. The statuette resembles a Phenakistoscope which was an early animation device used to create an illusion of motion.
Full List of Winners:
Best Animated Preschool Series (up to 6 years)
Vampirina: Going Batty – Brown Bag Films
Best Animated Short Film
The Wiremen: Jessica Patterson/ JAM Media
Best International Short Film
All the Things- Chris Guyot & Paul McMahon (USA/IRL)
Best Writer for Preschool Animation (up to 6 years)
Becca’s Bunch: Acorn King- Shane Langan & Amy Stephenson
Best Writer for an Animated Series
Vampirina: Home Scream Home -Chris Nee/ Brown Bag Films
Best VFX as part of Animated TV Series or Film
Space Chickens in Space – Paul Rutledge/ Gingerbread Animation
Best Animation for Apps, Gaming and Interactive
Aurora- Pink Kong Studios
Best Design and Art Direction
The Bird and the Whale- Carol Freeman/ Paper Panther Productions
Best Director of an Animated TV Series
Danger Mouse- Aidan McAteer/ Boulder Media
Best Animation
The Bird and the Whale- Eimhin McNamara & Carol Freeman/ Paper Panther
Best Music
Danger Mouse: Melted- Sanj Sen and Dominic Lawrence /Boulder Media
Best Sound Design
Danger Mouse- Dominic Lawrence and Sol O’Carroll/ Windmill Lane
Best Irish Feature Film or Special
The Breadwinner- Nora Twomey/ Cartoon Saloon
Best Newcomer
Paper Panther Productions
Kid’s Choice Award For Best Pre-School Animated Series (up to 6 years)
The Doc Mc Stuffins Christmas Special-Brown Bag Films
Kid’s Choice Award For Best Animated Series (6-12 years)
Space Chickens in Space- Gingerbread Animation
Murakami Award
Nora Twomey
