Persian Realm

RAT BEATS HUMAN AT ANNIE AWARDS

A gourmet rat was the big cheese at the 35th celebration, winning 9 Annie Awards. Honoring the best in animation for 2007, the annual gala event was held on February 8, 2008 at UCLA's Royce Hall.

"Ratatouille," Pixar Animation's tale of a rat who wants to become a chef, won the award for best feature production. Other nominees in the same category were DreamWorks' insect story "Bee Movie," Sony Pictures' penguin-powered "Surf's Up," Sony Pictures Classics' coming-of-age chronicle "Persepolis" and 20th Century Fox's "The Simpsons Movie."

"Ratatouille" also won writing and directing for Brad Bird, best voice acting for Ian Holm, best character animation, music, storyboarding, and production design.

The success of "Ratatouille" was followed by "Surf's Up." The story about surfing penguins won for animated effects and animation production artist.

The best-picture winner has gone on to win the Academy Award for animated feature every year but one since the Oscars added the category in 2001.

In the television categories, Nickelodeon's "El Tigre" won for best animated production for children and character design, and ShadowMachine's "Robot Chicken" won for character animation and directing.

For a complete listing of all the winners and nominees:

2007 ANNIE AWARD NOMINATIONS AND WINNERS BY CATEGORY

*Winners indicated in bold