Awards Watch: Annie Nominations

The nominees for the International Animated Film Society's 2008 Annie Awards have been announced ... and a panda shall lead them. DreamWorks' hit Kung Fu Panda leads the field with a butt-kickin' 16 nominations, plus 8 more for its video game and Secrets of the Furious Five spin-offs.

That leaves only seven for the expected front-runner, Disney/Pixar's WALL-E, which found itself surprisingly left off the list for its screenplay and score. Both films were nominated for the big prize, Best Animated Feature, along with Disney's Bolt, the stop motion $9.99 from Australia and the toon doc Waltz With Bashir from Israel. See the comments section below for a quick look at all the film nominations. The final awards will be presented on January 30.

Interestingly enough, the IAFS website lists their sponsors, and what-do-you-know, DreamWorks is listed as "Silver", while Disney and Pixar are only "Bronze". I guess Jeffrey Katzenberg got what he paid for ...