Disney and Pixar have withdrawn their support for the Annie Awards over its voting procedures, leaving the longest-running honors given to animated films without the biggest company in the history of animation and the most successful animation studio of the past two decades.
Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios confirmed on Wednesday that they had “regretfully decided to withdraw” from the International Animated Film Association (which goes by the initials ASIFA, for Association Internationale du Film d’Animation), and would no longer participate in the annual Annie Awards.
"We believe there is an issue with the way the Annies are judged, and have been seeking a mutually agreeable solution with the board,”Disney-Pixar president Ed Catmull (right, at the last Annies ceremony) said in a statement given to Variety.
The company had not planned to make its decision public, but word got out when a staffer posted an internal email on his Facebook page.
A key dispute centers on the Annies’ voting process, which in the past had allowed anyone paying a fee to become a voting member of the ASIFA.
While the organization does include animation professionals, its membership has increased dramatically in recent years – including an extremely large contingent from DreamWorks Animation, which, according to some familiar with the membership roster, may employ more than one-third and possibly as much as 40 percent of the ASIFA membership.
ASIFA-Hollywood president Antran Manoogian would not confirm those figures to theWrap, saying that membership information is confidential.
Those numbers, though, have worried Disney – DreamWorks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg’s former employer – for years, but so have other facets of the Annies process, including the selection of committees and panels.
ASIFA has made changes over the years to accommodate Disney’s concerns. Last year, the board limited the categories in which non-professionals could vote; this year, it plans to restrict voting to those who’ve been approved by a special committee.
"This year, if you're a member, you'll have to apply to vote," Manoogian told theWrap. "Your credentials will be examined by a qualification committee, and based on your experience, you'll be qualified to vote in certain categories.
"But if you're a storyboard artist, for instance, you won't be able to vote for voice acting."
Disney/Pixar had been pushing for an advisory board, made up of executives from a variety of animation studios, to recommend additional changes in the process. The studio’s decision to pull out came when, said Catmull, the ASIFA board informed Disney that “no further changes would be made to address our concerns.”
"They just felt that the moves we were making weren't enough for them to continue to support the event," said Manoogian.
The Annies have long been viewed with some skepticism in the animation community, with its voting process causing significant controversies in 2008 and 2009.
The first of those came in the Best Short Subject category, and benefited Disney and Pixar.
