Annie Awards: Zootopia & Kubo and the Two Strings Lead the Pack

Walt Disney Animation’s rollicking Zootopia was a critical and commercial success, and now the film is feeling the love from the International Animated Film Society—Zootopia leads all the feature nominees for the 44th annual Annie Awards with 11 nominations. (You can read our interview with Zootopia's animator Darrin Butters here, and the animation supervisors here.) Right behind Disney's packed, exuberant smash is Laika's moving, deeply impressive Kubo and the Two Strings, which garndered ten nominations.

Joining these two films in the best animated feature are Pixar’s Finding Dory, DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 3 and Disney’s Moana, which just topped the Thanksgiving box office.

The major studios released an impressive array of animated films this year, and so, too, did the indie labels.In the best animated independent feature category, GKIDS scored two nominations with Miss Hokusai and My Life as a Zucchini. Joing them are Long Way North, The Red Turtle and Your Name.

You can check out all of the nominations here.