Several CalArtians were honored at the 2026 Annie Awards, including four categories won by Green Street Pictures—co-founded by Experimental Animation alum Sean Buckelew (Film/Video MFA 14)—and The Wild Robot writer/director Chris Sanders (Film/Video BFA 84), who paid tribute to his CalArts mentors after being presented with the Winsor McCay lifetime achievement award.
Here’s the list of animation alumni winners from the 53rd annual Annie Awards ceremony, which was held Saturday, Feb. 21 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Sanders, a Character Animation alum, accepted his award on stage, thanking ASIFA (International Animated Film Association)”for this unexpected, but much, much appreciated recognition.” He also thanked his father, whose fascination with UFOs sparked Sanders’ imagination as a boy. And he gave special thanks to his late mentors, including Roger Allers, The Lion King co-director who passed away on Jan. 17; Kelly Asbury (Film/Video 82); and Joe Ranft (Film/Video 80), who received the Winsor McCay award posthumously in 2016.
“Everyone in this room knows that these productions are singular intersections of personalities and talents and dreams. We arrive on a film with a suitcase of the things that we’ve personally learned on the road that led us there—and hopefully we depart for the next having learned something new,” Sanders added.
Green Street Pictures’ Multiple Wins
Pasadena-based Green Street Pictures earned multiple honors for the Adult Swim series Common Side Effects, which is produced in collaboration with Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions.
- The pilot episode won both Best TV/Media – Mature and Best Writing – TV/Media.
- The episode Cliff’s Edge won Best Direction – TV/Media for Vincent Tsui, a Gobelins exchange student at CalArts in Spring 2015.
- Tony Christopherson and Joie Lim won the Best Editorial – TV/Media for the Common Side Effects episode Raid.
Carrie Hobson and Erik Fountain Also Take Home Annies
Erik Fountain (Film/Video BFA 07) won Best TV/Media – Children category for The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, episode The Rewrite.
Carrie Hobson (Film/Video BFA 10) won Best TV/Media – Limited Series for Pixar’s Win or Lose, Episode 8: Home. Hobson, accepted the award with co-creator Michael Yates and producer David Lally.
Also being honored on Saturday with the Winsor McCay award at the ceremony were Dutch-British animator Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle) and The Lego Movie filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
You can watch the full ceremony below, which was live-streamed, on YouTube.
