The 43rd Annual Annie Awards honoring excellence in the field of animation of 2015 was held on February 6, 2016, at the University of California, Los Angeles's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, presenting in 36 categories. This year, a new category called Best Animated Feature — Independent was introduced.
Production categories On December 1, 2015, the nominations for Annie Awards were announced. Inside Out earned the most number of nominations with 14, followed by The Good Dinosaur with 10. Minions earned seven nominations while Anomalisa, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and The Peanuts Movie each received five.
Best Animated FeatureBest Animated Special ProductionInside Out – Pixar, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Anomalisa – Paramount Pictures Shaun the Sheep Movie – Aardman Animations The Good Dinosaur – Pixar, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The Peanuts Movie – Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation | valign="top" |He Named Me Malala – Parkes-MacDonald / Little Door Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas – Warner Bros. Animation I Am a Witness – Moonbot Studios Kite – Epic Games Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck – End of Movie, LLC Niko and the Sword of Light – Titmouse, Inc. / Amazon Studios |- !style="width=50%"|Best Animated Short Subject !style="width=50%"|Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial |- | valign="top" |World of Tomorrow – Don Hertzfeldt Carface – National Film Board of Canada DISSONANCE – frameboX If I Was God... – National Film Board of Canada On Ice – Google/Evil Eye Pictures Sanjay's Super Team – Pixar | valign="top" |Coca-Cola 'Man and Dog – Psyop Chex Party Mix: "Holiday Magic" – Stoopid Buddy Stoodios Michelin Total Performance: "All the Performances In Every Tire" – Moonbot Studios We Are All Farmers – Acme Filmworks |- !style="width=50%"|Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children !style="width=50%"|Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children's Audience |- | valign="top" |Tumble Leaf - Episode: Mirror – Amazon Studios and Bix Pix Entertainment Bubble Guppies - Episode: 326 - "Super Guppies!" – Nickelodeon / Nelvana PAW Patrol - Episode: 213, Pups Save a MerPup – Spin Master Entertainment, Nickelodeon Productions Peter Rabbit - Episode: 216 - The Kitten and Pig Adventure – Nickelodeon Productions, Silvergate Media Sheriff Callie's Wild West - Episode: #201A "The Good, the Bad & the Yo-Yo" – Wild Canary Animation / Disney Junior Little Einsteins - Episode: 228 "Build It, Rocket!" - Disney Channel Transformers: Rescue Bots - Episode: "I Have Heard The Robots Singing" – Hasbro Studios Sesame Street - Episode: "Elmo The Grouch" - Sesame Workshop
| valign="top" |Wander Over Yonder - Episode: The Breakfast – Disney Television Animation Clarence - Episode: Turtle Hats – Cartoon Network Studios Gravity Falls - Episode: Not What He Seems – Disney Television Animation Harvey Beaks - Episode: A Day of No To-Do – Nickelodeon Animation Studio Sanjay and Craig - Episode: Street Dogg – Nickelodeon Animation Studio Star vs. the Forces of Evil - Episode: Blood Moon Ball – Disney Television Animation Steven Universe - Episode: Jail Break – Cartoon Network Studios |- !style="width=50%"|Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production !style="width=50%"|Best Animated Feature — Independent |- | valign="top" |The Simpsons - Episode: Halloween of Horror – Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox Television Bob's Burgers - Episode: Can't Buy Me Math – 20th Century Fox Television, Bento Box Entertainment BoJack Horseman - Episode: Brand New Couch – The Tornante Company Moonbeam City - Episode: Quest for Aquatica – Titmouse, Inc. / Comedy Central | valign="top" |Boy and the World – Filme de Papel Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet – Ventanarosa The Boy and the Beast – Studio Chizu When Marnie Was There – Studio Ghibli |- !style="width=50%" colspan="2"|Best Student Film |- | valign="top" colspan="2" |ed – Taha Neyestani''' Can I Stay? – Ringling College of Art and Design Dodoba – Yon Hui Lee Life Smartphone – Xie Chenglin Mother – Stephanie Chiew Nice To Meeteor You – Yizhou Li Shift – Maria Cecilia Puglesi The Casebook of Nips & Porkington'' – Melody Wang
Individual achievement categories Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in an Animated ProductionOutstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action ProductionJon Reisch, Stephen Marshall, Magnus Wrenninge, Michael Hall, Michael K. O'Brien – The Good Dinosaur – Pixar Greg Gladstone, Tim Hoff, Mark Newport, Jason Rickwald, Stephen Wood – Home – DreamWorks Animation Chris Logan, Brian Casper, Gavin Baxter, William Eckroat – Hotel Transylvania 2 – Sony Pictures Animation Amit Baadkar, Dave Hale, Vincent Serritella, Paul Mendoza – Inside Out – Pixar Frank Baradat, Antonin Seydoux, Milo Riccarand, Nicolas Brack – Minions – Illumination Entertainment Brice Mallier, Paul Buckley, Brent Droog, Alex Whyte, Jonothan Freisler – The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water – Paramount AnimationMichael Balog, Jim Van Allen, Florent Andorra, George Kaltenbrunner – Avengers: Age of Ultron – Marvel Studios Raul Essig, Roman Schmidt, Mark Chataway, Ryan Hopkins – Jurassic World – Universal Studios / Legendary Pictures Ronnie Menahem, Pavani Rao Boddapati, Francois Sugny, Leslie Chan, Nicolas Petit – Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials – Gotham Group / 20th Century Fox Ronnie Menahem, Brian Goodwin, Jason Lazaroff, Paul Harris, James Ogle – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Metro Goldwyn Mayer / New Line Cinema / WingNut Films / 3Foot7Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast ProductionOutstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Feature ProductionChi-Ho Chan – Dragons: Race to the Edge - Episode: Have Dragon Will Travel, Part 1 – DreamWorks Animation Television Yong-Zhi Sun – Dragons: Race to the Edge - Episode: Have Dragon Will Travel, Part 2 – DreamWorks Animation Television Alfonso Estrada – Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas - Episode: Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas – Screen Novelties / Warner Bros. Animation Scott DaRos – Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas - Episode: Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas – Screen Novelties / Warner Bros. Animation Maurizio Parimbelli – Peter Rabbit - Episode: 216 - The Kitten and Pig Adventure – Nickelodeon Productions / Silvergate Media Ryan MacNeil – Turbo FAST - Episode: "Turboldly Go" – DreamWorks Animation Television Justin Nichols – Wander Over Yonder - Episode: The Good Bad Guy – Disney Television AnimationAllison Rutland – Inside Out – Pixar Mark Donald – Home – DreamWorks Animation Travis Hathaway – Inside Out – Pixar Hichem Arfaoui – Minions – Illumination Entertainment Mark C. Harris – The Good Dinosaur – Pixar K.C. Roeyer – The Good Dinosaur – Pixar BJ Crawford – The Peanuts Movie – Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox AnimationOutstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Live Action ProductionOutstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Video GameMatthew Shumway, Adrian Millington, Blaine Toderian, Alexander Poei, Kevin Lan – The Revenant – The Bear – Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Anonymous Content, M Productions, Appian Way, RatPac-Dune Entertainment Glen McIntosh, Kevin Martel, Kyle Winkelman, Rodrick Fransham, Kaori Ogino – Jurassic World – Indominus Rex – Universal Studios / Legendary Pictures Jakub Pistecky, Gang Trinh, Craig Penn, Mickael Coedel, Yair Gutierrez – Avengers: Age of Ultron – The Hulk – Marvel Studios Peter Tan, Boonyiki Lim, Sachio Nishiyama, Byounghee Cho, Roy Tan – Avengers: Age of Ultron– Ultron – Marvel Studios Aaron Gilman, Howard Sly, Matthew Riordan, Kevin Kelm, Guillaume Francois – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies– Azog – Metro Goldwyn Mayer / New Line Cinema / WingNut Films / 3Foot7 David Clayton, Gios Johnston, Andreja Vuckovic, Guillaume Francois, Daniel Zettl – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Smaug – Metro Goldwyn Mayer / New Line Cinema / WingNut Films / 3Foot7David Gibson – Evolve – 2K Games Mike Dietz – Armikrog – Pencil Test Studios, Inc. Bruce Chang – Invisible, Inc. – Klei EntertainmentOutstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast ProductionOutstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated Feature ProductionCraig Kellman – Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas - Episode: Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas – Screen Novelties / Warner Bros. Animation Junpei Takayama – Breadwinners - Episode: Wrath of the Pizza Lord – Nickelodeon in association with Titmouse Canada Animation, Inc. David Tilton – Harvey Beaks - Episode: Night Club Night – Nickelodeon Tapan Gandhi – Pickle and Peanut - Episode: Swim Lessons – Disney Television Animation Dave Cooper, Steve Hirt – Pig Goat Banana Cricket - Episode: Pig Goat Banana Cricket High Five! – Nickelodeon Gordon Hammond, Steve Hirt, Jennifer Wood, Mike Dougherty – Pig Goat Banana Cricket - Episode: Miss Cutesy Meow Meows – Nickelodeon Chris Mitchell, Keiko Murayama – The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show - Episode: "New Sponsor/Cleopatra" – DreamWorks Animation TelevisionAlbert Lozano, Chris Sasaki – Inside Out – Pixar Craig Kellman, Stephen DeStefano – Hotel Transylvania 2 – Sony Pictures Animation Eric Guillon – Minions – Illumination Entertainment Matt Nolte – The Good Dinosaur – PixarOutstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast ProductionOutstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionMatt Braly – Gravity Falls - Episode: Northwest Mansion Mystery – Disney Television Animation Bryan Fordney – Archer - Episode: Edie's Wedding – FX Productions Dave Wasson – Mickey Mouse - Episode: Coned – Disney Television Animation TJ Sullivan – Dragons: Race to the Edge - Episode: "Reign of Fireworms" – DreamWorks Animation Television Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh – Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas - Episode: Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas – Screen Novelties / Warner Bros. Animation Heiko Dregenberg – Mickey Mouse - Episode: Bottle Shocked – Disney Television Animation Ken Wong – Pickle and Peanut - Episode: Pickle the Falcon Master – Disney Television Animation Ian Jones-Quartey – Steven Universe - Episode: The Test – Cartoon Network StudiosPete Docter – Inside Out – Pixar Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson – Anomalisa – Paramount Pictures Raul Garcia – Extraordinary Tales – Melusine Productions and R&R Communications Roger Allers – Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet – Ventanarosa Mark Burton and Richard Starzak – Shaun the Sheep Movie – Aardman Animations Steve Martino – The Peanuts Movie – Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation Hiromasa Yonebayashi – When Marnie Was There – Studio GhibliOutstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast ProductionOutstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated Feature ProductionChristopher Willis – Mickey Mouse - Episode: ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! – Disney Television Animation Matthew Sklar, Christopher Guardino – Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas - Episode: Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas – Screen Novelties / Warner Bros. Animation Einar Tonsberg – Puffin Rock - Episode: Night Lights – Cartoon Saloon, Dog Ears, Penguin Books Nick Bachman, Neil Graf, Matt Mahaffey, Jonathan Hylander – Sanjay and Craig - Episode: Street Dogg – Nickelodeon Mike Himelstein, Joe Ansolabehere, Mike Barnett – Sheriff Callie's Wild West - Episode: #201A "The Good, the Bad & the Yo-Yo" – Wild Canary Animation, Disney Junior J.G. Thirlwell – The Venture Bros: All This And Gargantua-2 – Titmouse, Inc. / Adult Swim Andy Bean – Wander Over Yonder - Episode: The Black Cube – Disney Television AnimationMichael Giacchino – Inside Out – Pixar Carter Burwell – Anomalisa – Paramount Pictures Kevin Riepl – Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem – Warner Bros. Animation Ruben Feffer, Gustavo Kurlat, GEM Grupo Experimental de Música, Emicida – Boy and the World – Filme de Papel