Less than a month after the flawed and controversial 38th Annual Annie Awards, the organization that oversees them got a major shake-up.
Members of ASIFA-Hollywood chose a new president, Frank Gladstone, to replace Antran Manoogian, who held the post for over twenty years. The group also elected a new vice-president, Cartoon Brew's Jerry Beck, and a new treasurer, DreamWorks Animation exec Jeff Wike.
Under Manoogian, the ASIFA-Hollywood board refused to correct the Annies' twisted voting rules, which handed DreamWorks an unfair advantage and precipitated Disney and Pixar's departure from the organization.
Gladstone says he is "looking forward to...making some significant changes to the status quo". "This includes updating our membership qualifications, establishing a representative voice for every animation studio and...revising the voting structure of the annual Annie Awards."
Of course, it remains to be seen whether new leadership will translate to acceptable changes and a return of support from Walt Disney Animation and Pixar. I'm sure everyone in the industry hopes it does.
[via TheWrap.com and The Hollywood Reporter]
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13 comments:
aka Pixar will yet again win EVERYTHING and shove the little guys aside in a race to the front of a race that no one in the real world cares about anyway
There was nothing unfair about the voting:
1) Dreamworks pays for membership fees for all of their employees.
2) Practically every Dreamworks employee would never vote along "party lines" purely because they worked there, to insinuate such would be an insult.
There is no "twisted voting rules", simply "you gotta be in it to win it", and Disney didn't like that another company was paying membership fees for it's employees. Dreamworks doesn't have to pay for them, they do it as a perk.
Disney acted like a spoilt child when they realised that there was some real competition to TS3 with HTTYD. Disney have two options: pay for memberships for it's employees, or *shock* *horror* make better films that will attract more votes from members no matter where they work at.
Silly Disney...
The Annies' "twisted voting rules" were indeed "corrected" this year, with voters having to prove their professional status within the industry in order to be eligible to vote. Disney sat it out anyway ... and it worked. They now have a more "studio-friendly" board.
The real reason for the Dreamworks sweep this year was that Disney didn't submit anything for nomination. They're whining about having to forfeit the game just because they refused to show up and play. How does that work?
Sure, there's nothing unfair about the voting in that case. Just doesn't lend the results any credibility.
I have to agree with the anonymous commenters -- having watched both Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon multiple times (I own both on Blu-Ray), Dragon is the better film. There's a lot more technical innovation there (the fire alone!) and the story and voice acting are top-notch, whereas TS3, while a good film, is mostly a rehash of TS2. Unlike those guys, though, I'm willing to put my name on it!
I tend to agree - if you don't play the game, don't expect to win.
And yes, think of even awards like character design - HTTYD was stunning, and many of the main characters of TS3 were preexisting. Even it there had been noms from all major films, and 'fair' voting, what do you wanna bet HTTYD would have still won many awards?
It can't be denied, TS3 was amazing, but HTTYD was too - and a real technical and filmmaking achievement.
@Anonymous 2, to each of your points:
1)What does paying membership fees have to do with it?
2)It's not a question of whether Dreamworks employees would vote along "party lines"; the problem is more fundamental. A system in which any studio (including Pixar) is able to buy their way in allows for unfair representation. Voting needs variety.
Maybe Disney simply didn't want to play a game of "Who can buy more memberships?"
AB:
1) Disney complained that the tables are turned against them because there are more voting members that come from Dreamworks than Disney, as if Disney thought that Dreamworks employees would blindly vote along party lines (which they don't).
2) There is no way a studio can "buy" their way in. Voting is performed by members of ASIFA. those members have their own brains to decide what film they think is best for each category.
Hey guys, cool it. Mike didnt say he wanted TS3 to sweep the annies, he just said that TS3 didnt get the credit it deserved.
And by the way, there are in fact some major technical improvements between TS2 and TS3, particulary in textures and lighting.
After the Wall-E snubbing and what happened this year, dont you think Pixar is being at least a little bit mistreated?
Listen. To all the people saying this:
2) Practically every Dreamworks employee would never vote along "party lines" purely because they worked there, to insinuate such would be an insult.
I work at DW and this sentiment is not entirely correct. Sure, when the difference in quality is as clear as something like 2007's Beemovie vs Ratatouille, it's impossible to vote for the inferior film without coming off as biased. HOWEVER, when that gap in quality gets smaller and a case can be made for voting for the DW film, studio members will do it. I don't know a single person here that doesn't think Dragons was vastly superior. Even though the general consensus outside the studio gates is that TS3 was a better film by a small margin. Studio patriotism exists and is in full force. To suggest otherwise is incredibly naive. The voting guidelines have to change.
@Nate...I feel pixar was definitely snubbed for WALL*E, which with finding nemo and rataouille are the best 3 of their films. TS3 only won the Oscar as a tribute to the entire series, not that one film alone.
HTTYD was a bit better than TS3. the story was so much for focused.
How to train your dragon was one of the only good Dreamworks movies, because i think that they just dont know stories like pixar. But TS3 is still better, and every pixar film will be better than a dreamworks no matter what anyboby says.
I do think this was unfair because basically Dreamworks is just buying the votes. As a whole PIXAR has FAR better movies then Dreamworks, better story lines and animation, better characters and more heart. I think it's wrong that people are saying how PIXAR dropped because they were upset they weren't winning. I think PIXAR just wanted to show that they have standards,I mean why is it fair for people to get away with unfair treatment? Yes PIXAR often wins awards but that's because they deserve them, why give awards to things that don't deserve them just because they don't win that often? I'm not saying Dreamworks movies are bad (although don't get me started on Jeffrey Katzenberg ant Ants! :P) because there are some good ones (How to Train Your Dragon, obviously)I just think that as a whole PIXAR is much better and shouldn't get jilted like what happened with WallE.
But that's just me, so no biggie
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