Individual Animation Winners Announced Ahead of Children’s & Family Emmy Awards Ceremony This Weekend

The National Academy of Television Arts & Science has announced the winners for Individual Achievement in Animation ahead of the awards ceremony to be held this weekend.

What’s Happening:

  • The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) today announced the winners in the category of Individual Achievement in Animation for the first annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards in advance of the awards ceremonies scheduled for December 10th and 11th.
  • With more than 3,000 entries, the Children’s & Family Emmys is the largest NATAS-administered competition of all time, and the Individual Achievement in Animation category was no exception, with a record number of submissions.
  • The category is unique in its judging process. Panels of expert animation peers evaluate the work of talented individual artists and animators, with submissions drawn from a single episode of a series or a special. Judges view and evaluate original artwork, video and other documentation from the disciplines of Background, Character Animation, Character Design, Color, Production Design and Storyboard.  
  • They consequently convene to discuss the detail and finer points of each submission in order to determine winners.
  • The seven winners chosen are:
    • Chris Tsirgiotis, Background Designer
    • Kid Cosmic, Netflix
    • Ron Tolentino Velasco, Character Designer
    • Monsters At Work, Disney+
    • Craig McCracken, Character Designer
    • Kid Cosmic, Netflix
    • Ivan Aguirre, Background Painter
    • The Cuphead Show!, Netflix
    • Alex Konstad, Visual Development Artist
    • Maya And The Three, Netflix
    • Alessandro Taini, Production Designer
    • Star Trek: Prodigy, Paramount+
    • Benjamin Arcand, Storyboard Artist
    • SpongeBob’s Road To Christmas, Nickelodeon
  • Launching in 2022, This marks the first standalone expansion of the Emmy Award competition since the Sports Emmy Awards and the News & Documentary Emmy Awards were launched in 1979, and establishes a dedicated ceremony separate from the Daytime Emmy Awards, which had been home to children’s and family programming categories. The announcement comes in response to Children’s and Family content representing the fastest-growing genre that NATAS awards, with a 23% increase in related programming the past two years.
  • The Children’s & Family Emmy ceremony, taking place on Sunday, December 11, will be hosted by Jack McBrayer, who is nominated for a Children’s & Family Emmy for Outstanding Host for his work on the Apple TV+ series Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show.  JoJo Siwa, who is nominated for Outstanding Choreography for Peacock’s Siwa’s Dance Pop Revolution, will host the Children’s & Family Creative Arts Emmy ceremony on Saturday, December 10.  Both ceremonies will take place at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
  • The Children’s & Family Emmy ceremonies will be streamed live on NATAS’ dedicated viewing platform powered by Vimeo, available on the web at Watch.TheEmmys.TV and via The Emmys apps for iOS, tvOS, Android, FireTV, and Roku.

What They’re Saying:

  • Brent Stanton, Head of the Children’s and Family Emmys: “Members of the Television Academy Animation peer group brought particular dedication, working long and tirelessly to bring their experience and expertise to this exhaustive but wonderful judging process.  They were impressed with the submissions, and are thrilled to see a continued high quality of work originating from this industry.”.