The very recent “ Pinocchio ” - director Guillermo Del Toro 's stop-motion masterpiece inspired by the novel by Carlo Collodi and nominated for an Oscar - wins the award for animated film of the year at the 50th edition of the Annie Awards , the ceremony which since 1972 it celebrates the best proposals inherent in the field of animation.
The prizes are awarded by the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA Hollywood) and - no small curiosity - they are highly coveted among experts in the sector precisely because it is they themselves who take on the task of evaluating the works of their colleagues here.
In addition to Best Animated Feature, the film won four other awards among the nine categories in which it was nominated : Best Director (Del Toro and Mark Gustafson), Best Production Design (Curt Enderle and Guy Davis), Best Character Design (Tucker Barrie) and Best Score for a Motion Picture (Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Del Toro and Patrick McHale).
After taking the stage, the director admits with a free heart: «I really wanted this damn Annie Award! It is the most beautiful trophy that there can be in the world .'
Another no small statement on his part - which bears witness to the care and love put into the project - is the following: «What I can say about "Pinocchio" is that it was created by artists and the animators were treated as actors and not as technicians».
More generally, it would seem to be a particularly prosperous period for films shot in stop motion . Witness the second place on the podium to "Marcel The Shell", highly appreciated by critics and winner in the category for Best Independent Film, in addition to those for Best Screenplay and Best Dubbing.
But if instead we had to make predictions about the future, will Del Toro's Pinocchio also be able to win the Oscar statuette as happened in the past for many of the previous Annie Award winners? In fact, Deadline magazine recalls that 13 out of 20 past Annie winners have subsequently won the Academy's even more coveted award. All that remains is to wait in this regard for the night of March 13, by now it is very close.
John Scanu