Animated Films Battle It Out

This year's winners were announced at UCLA's Royce Hall on Friday, January 30. Kung Fu Panda took home ten trophies including Best Animated Film, triumphing over all the other nominees, most notably the critically acclaimed WALL-E.

The crew of Panda took home plenty of individual achievement awards, including Nico Marlet for character design, Tang Heng for production design, and Dustin Hoffman for voice acting in a feature film.

Another big winner of the night was Secrets of the Furious Five, the unofficial sequel to Kung Fu Panda, which appears in the deluxe DVD release of the film. Marlet and Heng took home awards for their character and production work on the short film, as well.

The Academy Awards' animated feature category was set up as a separate award in 2001, and has since matched up with the Annie winner every year except two years ago when the Annies chose Cars for the best animated feature award and the Academy chose Happy Feet, according to the Hollywood Reporter.