Cartoon Saloon’s animated fantasy film My Father’s Dragon came out on top at the 2023 Irish Animation Awards (irishanimationawards.ie) on Saturday, with an incredible five wins, including Best Irish Feature. My Father’s Dragon was directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nora Twomey (The Breadwinner) and released by Netflix.
Igloo Animation’s children’s series produced for RTÉjr, Tales from Dún Draíochta, came away with two wins, including Best Animated Kids’ Series. Sixteen South’s preschool series Odo also bagged two awards on the night.
The biennial awards ceremony was held in-person for the first time since 2019 and was hosted by Irish TV and radio star Baz Ashmawy in Galway. This was a record year for the Irish Animation Awards, as 53 Irish productions were nominated. The ceremonyon May 27 featured the inaugural Outstanding Contribution to the Industry Award, which was presented to Teresa Mc Grane, formerly of Screen Ireland, who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support and nurture the growth of the Irish animation industry.
“It has been yet another superb and record-breaking year for Irish animation with 53 productions nominated,” commented Ronan McCabe, Chief Executive, Animation Ireland. “The sector is continuing to power ahead both in terms of the quality of the work being produced, which you can certainly see from the awards ceremony and the number of productions being delivered. The Irish Animation Awards is a wonderful occasion to celebrate the hard work, dedication, talent and outstanding creativity we have here in Ireland.’’
McCabe added, “Animation Ireland puts a huge emphasis on education and training and helping the next generation of animators to thrive, so it was amazing to see so many fantastic entries for Best Student Film, which was won by Avery Angle for Small Makings of a Storm. Thanks very much to our sponsors for their support, all twenty-seven of them! The response from the industry has been overwhelming and whilst our headline sponsors are RTÉ and Screen Ireland, we could not have run this event without all of them and in this instance they are truly too numerous to mention!’’
Winners of each category received a statuette designed by animator, film maker and teacher Eimhín McNamara. The statuette resembles a Phenakistoscope, an early animation device used to create an illusion of motion.
Animation Ireland is the trade association for Ireland’s animation studios, representing 44 member studios employing more than 2,000 people on the island of Ireland. The sector has seen major growth in recent years, with the industry now generating almost €200 million for the economy annually, as Irish animation projects screen in more than 190 countries worldwide.
2023 Irish Animation Awards Winners
- Best Animated Preschool Series — Circle Square | Kavaleer Productions, Wyndley Animation
- Best Animated Kids Series 6+ — Tales from Dún Draíochta | Igloo Animations, Trevor Courtney
- Kids’ Choice Preschool — Fia’s Fairies | Little Moon Animation, Vanessa Robinson, Eoghan Garvey
- Kids’ Choice 6+ — The Cuphead Show! | Lighthouse Studios; Ruchi Shah, Paul Madden, Cormac Slevin
- Best Animated Short Film — Soul Office | TAUNT
- Best International Short Film — The Stranger | Jihye Jung, Jusuk Lee, Hyunju Kim
- Best Writer for Preschool Animation — Odo “Doodle Song” | Ishai Ravid
- Best Writer for an Animated Series — Tales from Dún Draíochta “Lusmore and the Rapping Fairy” | Trevor Courtney
- Best Animation for Apps, Games & Interactive — Waggle | Katie McNeice, Maeve MacNamara, Jim Pipe
- Best Art Direction & Design — Bardo | Aisling Conroy, Alan Holly, Cora McKenna
- Best Director of an Animated Series — Karma’s World | Bronagh O’Hanlon, Pete McEvoy, Brian O’Brien
- Best Animation Sequence — The Cuphead Show! | Julius Mingi, Dindo Santos, Gian Carla Atienza
- Best Music — My Father’s Dragon | Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna
- Best Sound Design — Memento Mori | Ed Costello, Ryan Quinn
- Best Irish Feature or Special — My Father’s Dragon | Cartoon Saloon
- Best Innovation in Animation — Face2Face “Charles & Camilla” | Retinize & Flickerpix
- Best Irish IP — Odo | Reggie Colin Williams
- Best Student Film — The Small Makings of a Storm | Avery Angle
- Best Editing — My Father’s Dragon | Richie Cody, Darren Holmes
- Best Storyboarding — My Father’s Dragon | Giovanna Ferrari
- Best VFX — My Father’s Dragon | Cartoon Saloon
- Outstanding Contribution to the Industry — Teresa Mc Grane
