The Iron Giant proved its mettle at the 27th Annie Awards Saturday, when the International Animated Film Society honored the animated feature film for achievement in TV, film, commercials, home video and interactive production.
Although the film has so far been an economic loss -- its budget was $48 million, and it's grossed only $23 million in U.S. ticket sales so far -- it won nine awards out of 15 nominations. Among them: excellence in character animation, effects animation, directing, music, storyboarding, writing, theatrics, individual voice-over and production design.
The production by Warner Bros., a sister company to CNN Interactive, is about a boy in Maine who befriends a metal-eating robot that falls out of the sky in 1958.
Other winners include The Simpsons, for animated TV program and writing; The Lion King II, Simba's Pride, for home video production; and The Goddamn George Liquor Program, for animated interactive production.
The Iron Giant did receive several notable reviews by critics, but I doubt that it will figure prominently in the 1999 Oscar race.
Other Film News
The Insider could be an easy choice for the second best film of the year so far. Our predictions from last week still stand, especially a nomination for Russell Crowe, who should receive the Supporting Acting Oscar. It will be interesting to see if they promote Crowe for the leading or supporting actor category.
Al Pacino of course was incredible, it's one of his best recent performances. Hopefully, Michael Mann is nominated for directing, and that the film is one of the five honored choices for Best Picture of the Year.
This weekend, Kevin Smith's controversial film Dogma opens nationwide ... most likely, it will be too controversial to garner Oscar nominations (although the new song from the film by Alanis Morissette, called Still, deserves a nomination for Best Music Original Song), it will still be one of the more interesting film experiences of 1999.
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