Sony Pictures Animation & Sony Pictures Imageworks Score Studio Record 16 Annie Award Nominations On Anniversary Year

CULVER CITY, Calif., Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Pictures Digital Productions (SPDP) racked up a solid 16 Annie Award nominations for 2012, the highest in the company's history, including eight nods for the Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) monster hit Hotel Transylvania, it was announced Monday by ASIFA-Hollywood, the international animated film society. The 40^th annual Annie Awards ceremony will be held February 2, 2013 at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles.

Beyond, Hotel Transylvania's eight nominations, ASIFA Hollywood also recognized Aardman's The Pirates! Band of Misfits which is a Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation co-presentation, with five nominations a pair of nods for Sony Pictures Imageworks' visual l effects work on The Amazing Spider-Man and for Hotel Transylvania director Genndy Tartakovsky's hand drawn animated short film Goodnight, Mr. Foot in the category of Best Animated Short Subject.

"I'm very proud of the industry-wide appreciation for Sony Pictures Animation's films and Sony Pictures Imageworks' visual effects work to Genndy's delightful short film," said Bob Osher President, SPDP. "This is a banner year for our division as Sony Pictures Imageworks is turning 20 and Sony Pictures Animation 10 and, with so many exciting plans for 2013, this is just the start of great things to come."

Hotel Transylvania received Annie nominations in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Direction (Tartakovsky), Music (Mark Mothersbaugh), Production Design (Marcelo Vignali), Voice Acting (Adam Sandler), Editorial (Catherine Apple) and twice for Character Design (Carlos Grangel, Carter Goodrich).

Aardman's The Pirates! Band of Misfits received five nominations in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Animation (Will Becher), Production Design (Norman Garwood, Matt Berry), Voice Acting (Imelda Staunton) and Writing (Gideon Defoe).

Sony Pictures Imageworks was recognized for its visual effects work on the blockbuster film The Amazing Spider-Man. Led by Imageworks Visual Effects Supervisor Jerome Chen, the film received nominations in the categories of Effects (Stephen Marshall, Joseph Pepper, Dustin Wicke) and Animation (Mike Beaulieu, Roger Vizard, Atsushi Sato, Jackie Koehler, Derek Esparza, Richard Smith, Max Tyrie).

Hotel Transylvania arrives on 3D Blu-ray™, Blu-ray™ and DVD on January 29, 2013 and features the Annie nominated short Goodnight, Mr. Foot. Double Annie nominee Tartakovsky is presently directing Sony Pictures Animation's highly-anticipated feature film Popeye, which is slated for release in September 2014. Aardman's The Pirates! Band of Misfits is now available on DVD, as is the animated holiday delight Arthur Christmas.

Smurfs fans will get a double dose of the Belgian blue creatures over the next year, starting with Sony Pictures Animation's short The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, directed by Troy Quane, premieres this Wednesday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network. The studio is also busily preparing The Smurfs 2 for theatrical release on July 31, 2013.

Sony Pictures Animation will also release Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, on September 27, 2013.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ANIMATION
Sony Pictures Animation produces a variety of animated entertainment for audiences around the world.  The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the 2012 monster hit comedy Hotel Transylvania (3D), the 2011 hybrid live action/animated blockbuster, The Smurfs (3D) and the 2009 mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (3D)—with The Smurfs 2 (3D) in July 2013 and a sequel to Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (3D) in September 2013.  Sony Pictures Animation, in conjunction with Aardman Animations, has produced two critically acclaimed feature films:  the CG-animated family comedy Arthur Christmas (3D); and the stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The Pirates! Band of Misfits (3D).  In 2007, Surf's Up received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.  The division, whose first feature film Open Season led to a very successful movie franchise, is turning 10 this year.  Sony Pictures Animation is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions.

• Website: http://www.sonypicturesanimation.com/
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• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SonyAnimation

ABOUT SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS
Sony Pictures Imageworks is the Academy Award® winning visual effects and animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions known for live-action visual effects and dynamic creature and character animation, all-CG animation, and stereoscopic 3D imagery. The company, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is currently in production on Oz the Great and Powerful, animated feature Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers (3D) and the hybrid live-action/animation film The Smurfs 2.  Other recent credits include Hotel Transylvania (3D), The Amazing Spider-Man (3D), Men in Black 3 (3D), The Smurfs (3D), Alice in Wonderland (3D) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (3D). 

• Website: http://www.imageworks.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SonyPicturesImageworks
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/imageworksvfx
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/imageworksvfx

SOURCE Sony Pictures Animation; Sony Pictures Imageworks