Kilkenny's My Father's Dragon leads way with seven Irish Animation Award nominations

My Father's Dragon, from Kilkenny-based animation studio Cartoon Saloon and Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey, leads the way in this year's Irish Animation Awards, with seven nominations.

The nominees for the 2023 Irish Animation Awards were announced today by Animation Ireland, the trade association for Irish animation studios. This year’s ceremony takes place in Galway on Saturday, May 27. In a record year for the Irish animation sector, 53 Irish productions were nominated for an award.

Leading the way with seven nominations is Cartoon’s Saloon’s feature film produced for Netflix, My Father’s Dragon, directed by the Oscar-nominated Nora Twomey. The Preschool series Odo, produced for Channel 5 by Sixteen South has six nominations and RTÉ’s preschool series Ray of Sunshine, produced by Daily Madness has five nominations.

The biennial awards are the premier event in the Irish animation calendar and celebrate the creative brilliance and talent of the Irish animation sector. The ceremony will take place in person for the first time since the covid pandemic.

According to Animation Ireland’s Chief Executive, Ronan McCabe, the awards this year highlight the continued growth and creativity in the sector; ‘’It has been another superb year for Irish animation and we now have a record number of Irish productions being nominated. There is nominated work from Oscar and Bafta winners alongside stunning work from student producers, and the quality across the board is immense. It’s really heartening that the future remains bright for Irish animation.’’

Ronan went on to say; ‘’It will be great to be back having our awards in person again for the first time since 2019 due to the pandemic. We are running a full day event with industry panels and discussions taking place in the morning, followed by the awards ceremony in the evening. I must also extend a huge thank you to all of our other sponsors who play such an important role in supporting Irish animation and making this event happen.’’

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and RTÉ are the headline sponsors for the 2023 Irish Animation Awards. This year’s other sponsors include Northern Ireland Screen, Coimisiún na Meán, Creative Europe Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Nickelodeon and Milkshake.

Winners of each category will receive a statuette designed by animator, film maker and teacher Eimhín McNamara. The statuette resembles a Phenakistoscope, an early animation device used to create an illusion of motion.

Animation Ireland is the trade association for Ireland’s animation studios, representing forty-two member studios, who employ more than two thousand people on the island of Ireland. The sector has seen meteoric growth in recent years, with the industry now generating almost €200 million for the economy annually, as Irish animation projects are viewed in over 180 countries worldwide.