Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Video Game

The Annie Award for Character Animation in a Video Game is an Annie Award given annually to the best character animation in video games. It was first presented at the 42nd Annie Awards.

Annie Award for Character Animation in a Video Game
Awarded for	Excellence in character animation
Country	United States
Presented by	ASIFA-Hollywood
First award	2014
Currently held by	Nomada Studio – Neva (2024)
Website	annieawards.org

Winners and nominees

2010s

Year	Video Game	Recipient(s)	Notes	Company
2014 (42nd) [1]
	Assassin's Creed Unity	Mike Mennillo		Ubisoft Montreal
	Don't Starve: Console Edition	Alex Savin, Allan Cortez, Kelly Graham, Aaron Bouthillier, Jeff Agala		Klei Entertainment Inc.
	Child of Light	Alex Drouin		Ubisoft Montreal
2015 (43rd) [2][3]
	Evolve	David Gibson	Character Animator: Daisy, Goliath, Kraken	2K Games
	Armikrog	Mike Dietz	Lead Animator: All Characters	Pencil Test Studios, Inc.
	Invisible, Inc.	Bruce Chang	Character Animator: Decker, Central, Nika, Guards	Klei Entertainment Inc.
2016 (44th) [4][5]
	Uncharted 4: A Thief's End	Jeremy Yates, Almudena Soria, Eric Baldwin, Paul Davies, Tom Bland	Lead Animators: All Characters	Naughty Dog
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Legends	Lucio Mennillo, Martine Quesnel, Alexandre Cheff, Laura Gorrie, Guillaume Charrin	Character Animators, Lead Animator [note 1]	Ludia Inc.
	Titanfall 2	Ranon Sarono, Shawn Wilson, Mark Grigsby, Paul Messerly, Moy Parra	Character Animators, Lead Animator[note 2]	Respawn Entertainment
	Witcher 3 Expansion Packs	Sebastian Kalemba	Lead Animator	CD Projekt Red
2017 (45th) [6][7]
	Cuphead	Hanna Abi-Hanna	Lead Animator: The Devil, Grim Matchstick, Beppi The Clown, Werner Werman	StudioMDHR
	Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice	Chris Goodall, Jitaik Lim, Kirill Spiridonov	Character Animators: Senua	Ninja Theory
	Cuphead	Tina Nawrocki	Lead Animator [note 3]	StudioMDHR
	Horizon Zero Dawn	Richard Oud, Kevin Quaid, Niek Neervens, Jonathan Colin, Peer Lemmers	Lead Animator, Character Animator [note 4]	Guerrilla Games
	Uncharted: The Lost Legacy	Almundena Soria, Keith Paciello, Paul Augustus Davies	Lead Animators: All Characters	Naughty Dog
2018 (46th) [8][9]
	Gris	Adrian Miguel, Adrian Garcia, Adrian Miguel	Lead Animators [note 5]	Nomada Studio
	God of War	Erica Pinto, Mehdi Yssef, Bruno Velazquez	Lead Animators [note 6]	Santa Monica Studio
	Marvel's Spider-Man	Bobby Coddington	Lead Animator: Spider-Man	Insomniac Games
	Moss	Richard Lico	Lead Animator: Quill	Polyarc
	Shadow of the Tomb Raider	David Hubert, Jacob Gardner, Giovanni Spinelli, Marco Foglia, Jean-Philippe Chaurette	Lead Animator, Character Animators [note 7]	Square Enix
2019 (47th) [10][11]
	Unruly Heroes	Sebastien Parodi, Nicolas Leger	Character Animator, Lead Animator [note 8]	Magic Design Studios
	Gears 5	Brian Whitmire	Lead Animator: JD, Del, Marcus, Fahz, Reyna, Kait	The Coalition / Microsoft
	Kingdom Hearts III	Munenori Shinagawa, Kayoko Yajima, Koji Hamada, Koji Inoue	Character Animators [note 9]	Square Enix
	Sinclair Snake: Museum Mischief	Tommy Rodricks, Natan Moura, Nelson Boles	Character Animator [note 10]	Chromosphere / Within

2020s

Year	Video Game	Recipient(s)	Notes(s)	Company
2020 (48th) [12][13]
	Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales	Brian Wyser, Michael Yosh, Danny Garnett, David Hancock		Insomniac Games
	League of Legends	Jose "Sho" Hernandez, Jason Hendrich, Drew Morgan		Riot Games
	Ori and the Will of the Wisps	Jim Donovan, Warren Goff, Boris Hiestand, Kim Nguyen, Jason Martinsen		Moon Studios / Xbox Game Studios / Iam8bit
	The Last of Us Part II	Jeremy Yates, Eric Baldwin, Almudena Soria, Michal Mach, August Davies		Naughty Dog
2021 (49th) [14][15]
	Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart	Insomniac Games
	It Takes Two	Hazelight Studios
	Kena: Bridge of Spirits	Ember Lab
	Madrid Noir	Aziz Kocanaogullari	Character Animator	Atlas V, No Ghost
	Disney Wonderful Worlds	Ludia
2022 (50th) [16]
	Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course	Chad Moldenhauer, Hanna Abi-Hanna		Studio MDHR
	God of War Ragnarök	Santa Monica Studio
	Horizon Forbidden West	Richard Oud, Jan-Erik Sjovall, Guerrilla Animation Team		Guerrilla Games
	Moss: Book II	Richard Lico		Polyarc
	Potionomics	Emily Lattanavong, Anguel Bogoev		Voracious Games
2023 (51st) [17][18]
	Marvel's Spider-Man 2	Insomniac Games Animation Team		Insomaniac Games
	Atomic Heart	Mundfish Animation Team		Mundfish
	Hogwarts Legacy	Tara Edwards		Avalanche Software
	Let's! Revolution	BUCK Animation Team		BUCK
	Teslagrad 2	Aslak Helgesen		Rain Games
2024 (52nd) [19][20]
	Neva	Nomada Studio Animation Team		Nomada Studio
	#BLUD	Chris Burns and Bob Fox
	Asgard's Wrath 2	Sanzaru Games Animation Team		Sanzaru Games
	Diesel Legacy	Maximum Entertainment
	Senua's Saga: Hellblade II	Ninja Theory

Notes

1. Character Animator: Lucio Mennillo (Character: Donatello Vision); Character Animator: Martine Quesnel (Character: Leonardo Vision); Character Animator: Alexandre Cheff (Character: Donatello LARP); Character Animator: Laura Gorrie (Character: Leatherhead LARP); Lead Animator: Guillaume Charrin (Character: Raphael Vision)
2. Character Animator: Ranon Sarono (Character: Jack Cooper, BT-7274, Weapons); Character Animator: Shawn Wilson (Character: BT-7274, Creatures); Lead Animator: Mark Grigsby (Character: BT-7274, Jack Cooper, Viper, Weapons); Lead Animator: Paul Messerly (Character: BT-7274, Jack Cooper, AI); Character Animator: Moy Parra (Character BT-7274, Villains)
3. Lead Animator: Tina Nawrocki (Characters: Baroness Von Bon Bon, Hopus Pocus, Pirouletta, Giant, Tipsy Troupe, Lobster, Porkrind, Dragonfly, The Devil – DEATH)
4. Lead Animator: Richard Oud (Character: All mechanical creatures); Kevin Quaid (Character: All humanoids); Character Animator: Niek Neervens; Jonathan Colin (Character: All humanoids); Character Animator: Peer Lemmers (Character: All mechanical creatures)
5. Lead Animator: Adrian Miguel (Character: Gris (Cinematics and In-Game)); Lead Animator: Adrian Garcia (Character: Gris (Cinematics)); Lead Animator: Adrian Miguel (Character: Sombra)
6. Lead Animator: Erica Pinto (Character: All characters in cinematics); Lead Animator: Mehdi Yssef (Character: All characters in gameplay); Lead Animator: Bruno Velazquez (Character: All characters)
7. Lead Animator: David Hubert (Character: All cinematic characters); Character Animator: Jacob Gardner (Character: All cinematic characters); Character Animator: Giovanni Spinelli (Character: All cinematic characters); Character Animator: Marco Foglia (Character: All cinematic characters); Character Animator: Jean-Philippe Chaurette (Character: All gameplay characters)
8. Character Animator: Sebastien Parodi (Characters: Heroes Kid version, Underworld NPC); Lead Animator: Nicolas Leger (Character: Heroes (Wukong, Kihong, Sandmonk, Sanzang), All enemies (except Underworld levels) and cinematics)
9. Character Animator: Munenori Shinagawa (Characters: Sora, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, Jiminy, Yen Sid, Chip, Dale, Kairi, Riku, Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, Woody, Buzz, Hamm, Rex, Mike, Sulley, Boo, Jack, Gibbs, Elizabeth, Barbarossa, Will, Tia, Heartless); Character Animator: Kayoko Yajima (Characters: Sora, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, Jiminy, Yen Sid, Chip, Dale, Kairi, Riku, Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, Woody, Buzz, Hamm, Rex, Mike, Sulley, Boo, Jack, Gibbs, Elizabeth, Barbarossa, Will, Tia, Heartless); Character Animator: Koji Hamada (Character: Sora, Donald, Goofy, Sulley, Mike, Marshmallow, Baymax, Buzz, Woody, Ariel, Heartless); Character Animator: Koji Inoue (Character: Sora, Donald, Goofy, Sulley, Mike, Marshmallow, Baymax, Buzz, Woody, Ariel, Heartless)
10. Character Animator: Tommy Rodricks (Characters: Sgt. Salamander, Sinclair Snake); Character Animator: Natan Moura (Character: Sinclair Snake); Character Animator: Nelson Boles (Character: Various)