The 49th Annie Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 12th, 2022.

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: Belle (Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime) (Studio Chizu / Distributed by GKIDS)

The story of Belle is an unusual combination of a fairy-tale with a very contemporary idea, all the while emotionally centered around real-world traumas and issues. That this works so intensely on an emotional level is a credit to the storytellers. (Not seen: Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, Pompo the Cinephile.)

---

Best Animated Feature: Encanto (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

There were three films, curiously all of them fantasies inspired by international cultures, that would easily be picked here. Ultimately, the emotional power of the simple story told by Encanto is the one that rises to the top. (Not seen: Sing 2.)