2017 Irish Animation Awards Nominees Announced

In 2015, the inaugural Irish Animation Awards celebrated the best animation being produced in the Emerald Isle. This year sees the second iteration of the biennial event, which is set to place on March 25th, as part of the Animation Dingle festival. Now, with the ceremony just around the corner, this year's nominees have been revealed.

It's a fantastic result for Cartoon Saloon, with the Kilkenny-based studio picking up five awards. Four of these are for their preschool series Puffin Rock, while the last is for Song Of The Sea, in the new Best Irish Feature Film Or Special category.

The biggest winner. however is Dublin's Boulder Media, who have picked up multiple nominations (eight in total) for Danger Mouse, Go Jetters and Wander Over Yonder.


The ceremony will take place at 8pm at the Dingle Skellig Hotel. The full list of nominees is below.

Best Animated Preschool Series (up to 6 years)

• Lily’s Driftwood Bay – Sixteen South Production Team
• Little Roy – JAM Media Production team
• Puffin Rock – Maurice Joyce: Director

Kids Choice Award for Best Animated Series

• Danger Mouse – Peter Lewis
• Roy– JAM Media Production team
• Wander over Yonder – Peter Lewis: Producer, Gillian Comerford: Director, Pete Slattery: Animation Director

Best Animated Short Film

• City of Roses – Andrew Kavanagh: Director
• Geist – Alex Sherwood: Director, Ben Harper: Director, Sean Mullen: Director
• Second to None – Vincent Gallagher

Best Writer for Preschool Animation (up to 6 years)

• Doc McStuffins: Welcome to McStuffinsville – Chris Nee, Kent Redeker
• Octonauts: The Great Swamp Search – Stephanie Simpson
• Puffin Rock: The First Snow – Davey Moore, Sara Daddy

Best Writer for an Animated Series

• Brain Freeze: (DNA): Is Every Human Being Unique? – Colm Tobin & Aidan O’Donovan
• Roy: Karma Chameleon –  Dave Rice
• Roy: ROY 2.0 – Mark Hodkinson

Best VFX as part of Animated TV Series or Film

• Brain Freeze – Ian Benjamin Kenny
• Go Jetters – Rob Fletcher, Mario Bortas, Rodrigo Rocha
• Wander Over Yonder – Peter Lewis: Producer, Gillian Comerford: Director, Deirdre Behan: FX Lead

Best Animation for Apps and Gaming

• Her Majesty’s SPIFFING – Production Team, William Barr & Alan Martin
• The Little Acre – Pewter Games Production Team
• Little Roy’s Wonder Doodler – Niall Mooney: Director, Will Wivell: Animator

Best Design / Art Direction

• Bernard Dunne’s Mythical Heroes – Ian Benjamin Kenny
• Octonauts – Stephen O’Connor‘
• Puffin Rock – Lily Bernard, Stefano Scapolan

Best Director of an Animated TV Series

• Danger Mouse – Rob Cullen
• Lily’s Driftwood Bay – Tim Harper, Colin Williams
• Little Roy – Alan Shannon

Best Animation

• Puffin Rock – Animation Team
• The Day Henry Met a Camera – Gilly: Director, Susan Broe: Producer, Andrew Dawson: Animation Director
• Two by Two – Oops! The Ark Has Gone – Moetion Films Animation Team

Best Music/Sound Design

• Brain Freeze – Stephen Kelly, Steve Lynch & Giles Packham
• Danger Mouse – Dominic Lawrence: Supervising Sound Editor & Dubbing Mixer, Sol O’Carroll: Sound Editor, Andy Kirwan: Sound Editor
• Go Jetters – Carl Cullen: Supervising Sound Editor & Dubbing Mixer, Edward Costello: Sound Editor

Best Irish Feature Film or Special

• Song of the Sea – Tomm Moore
• Two by Two – Oops! The Ark Has Gone –  Moetion Films Team
• Wander over Yonder: My Fair Hatey – Producer: Peter Lewis, Director: Gillian Comerford, Animation Director: Pete Slattery/Stephen McGann

[source]