ASIFA-Hollywood announced its slate of presenters today for the 45th Annie Awards™ this Saturday, February 3 from UCLA’s Royce Hall. Presenters include actress Wendie Malick; Coco’s Anthony Gonzalez; Director Nora Twomey and actress Saara Chaudry from The Breadwinner; Disney voice talent Russi Taylor; SpongeBob himself, Tom Kenny; Animators Mark Henn and Floyd Norman, and other industry notables, including Debi Derryberry, and E.G. Daily. The Annie Awards™ will be streamed live starting at 7 p.m. PST http://annieawards.org/watch-it-live/.

The Annie Awards™ honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 36 categories including Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Special Production, Commercials, Short Subjects and Outstanding Individual Achievements. This year, the Best Animated Features nominations are Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (DreamWorks Animation), Cars 3 (Pixar Animation Studios), Coco (Pixar Animation Studios), Despicable Me 3 (Illumination Entertainment) and The Boss Baby (DreamWorks Animation).

Best Animated Feature – Independent nominations are In This Corner of the World (Taro Maki, GENCO, Inc. and Masao Maruyama, MAPPA Co., Ltd.), Loving Vincent (BreakThru Films, Production Company Trademark Films, Co-Production Company.), Napping Princess (Nippon TV), and The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales (Folivari/Panique!/Studiocanal).

"This year, besides our tremendous slate of awards and honors, we will be dedicating the ceremony to our beloved June Foray," remarked Frank Gladstone, ASIFA-Hollywood's executive director. "More than anyone else, June was responsible for founding the Annies 45 years ago. This will be the first year she is not going to be with us, so we will do our best to remember and celebrate June's creativity, generosity and unrelenting advocacy for the animation community."

The Annie Awards™ also honor career achievement and exceptional contributions to animation

with the Juried Awards. This year, ASIFA-Hollywood is thrilled to announce that all three Winsor

McCay recipients will attend the ceremony. The Winsor McCay Award for career contributions to the art of animation are being presented to three recipients – British character animator, James Baxter; SpongeBob SquarePants creator, Stephen Hillenburg and the Canadian animation duo, Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis. The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement that has made a significant impact on the art and industry of animation will be presented to TVPaint for its versatile software for 2D animation; The Special Achievement Award recognizing the unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation will be presented to Studio MDHR Entertainment for its 1930s inspired wonder-game Cuphead; and the June Foray Award for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation will be awarded to animation historian, Didier Ghez. The Certificate of Merit award will be presented to David Nimitz, devoted friend and caretaker of veteran voice actress and ASIFA-Hollywood and Annie Award pioneer, June Foray, who passed away in July at the age of 99.

The black tie event will kick-off at 5 p.m. with Red Carpet arrivals and a VIP champagne reception, followed by the awards ceremony at 7 p.m. and after-party immediately following the show. All events will be held at UCLA’s Royce Hall. For complete event details, please visit www.annieawards.org/event-info.

ASIFA-Hollywood is the world’s first and foremost professional organization dedicated to promoting the Art of Animation and celebrating the people who create it. Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest chapter of the international organization ASIFA, supports a range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Archive, Animation Aid Foundation, animated film preservation, special events, classes and screenings.

Created in 1972 by veteran voice talent June Foray, the Annie Awards have grown in scope and stature for the past four decades. For more information on the Annie Awards™, please visit www.annieawards.org.  For information about ASIFA-Hollywood, visit www.asifa-hollywood.org.