Star Wars: Visions won big at the Annie Awards. The awards show that celebrates everything in animation honored two shorts from the anthology series.
First up was the fan favorite "Screecher's Reach," which won Best Direction - TV/Media. It won over Scavengers Reign, Pokémon Concierge, My Dad the Bounty Hunter, and Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. The other winner from Visions was "Aau's Song," which took home Best Music -TV/Media. It beat out Animaniacs, Babylon 5: The Road Home, Pacemaker, and The Smeds and The Smoos.
They weren't the only Visions shorts that were nominated at the Annie Awards. "Sith" was nominated for Best Production Design - TV/Media and Best FX - TV/Media but lost out to Netflix's Blue Eye Samurai in both categories. "I Am Your Mother" and "Screecher's Reach" also lost to Blue Eye Samurai for Best Character Animation - TV/Media and Best Editorial - TV/Media, respectively.
Any animation fan worth their salt knows that the Annie Awards are a massive deal. Unlike the popularity contests that are the Emmy Awards or the Academy Awards, where voters usually go, "Oh, my kid liked this Disney movie. I'll vote on that one," the only eligible people who can vote on Annie's are people who work in the animation industry. These people know the craft, the technology, the artistry, and what goes into creating animated series and movies we all love.
What's more, the Annie's also separate categories by age range, so you don't have a preschool series, say Young Jedi Adventures, going up against something like Family Guy. They also separate movies from television series, so something like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (which took home the big prize of Best Feature) wouldn't compete against Star Wars: Visions.
The Annie Awards are considered the highest honor in animation, and for Star Wars: Visions to take home 2 awards is incredibly impressive, especially with the competition they were up against. To put it into perspective, The Clone Wars has been nominated several times over the years but has never won an Annie. We'll have to wait and see if The Bad Batch gets nominated and wins next year, something it's never done before.