The 45th Annie Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 3rd, 2018.

As I have been doing for a few years, as we get into the awards season, I’ll post the fictional ballots for some of the guild awards, showing what my vote would be if I had one. I will, as a rule, abstain from my fictional vote if I haven’t seen at least half of the nominees. And to be perfectly clear, I’m not a member of any of these guilds and organizations.

The list of nominees can be seen here.

Here it goes:

Best Animated Feature – Independent: abstain (Not seen: In This Corner Of The World, Napping Princess, The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales, The Breadwinner.)

Best Animated Feature: Coco (Pixar Animation Studios)

Everything works in Coco. It’s a fine, touching emotional journey, set in a fantastic (and great looking) world. It also treats the Mexican culture that offered its setting with great respect. The animation itself is technically flawless. (Not seen: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Despicable Me 3.)