‘The Secret of Kells’ will now compete with Sony Pictures’ ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’, Laika’s ‘Coraline’, 20th Century Fox’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’, Disney’s ‘The Princess and the Frog’ and Pixars’ ‘Up’.

‘The Rooster, The Crocodile and the Night Sky’ will go up against Picnic Pictures’ ‘Pups of Liberty’, Shadow Machines’ ‘Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5’ and Plumptoons’ ‘Santa, The Fascist Years’ and Badmash Animations Studios’ ‘The Story of Walls’.

The winners will be announced on Saturday, February 6th at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.

‘The Secret of Kells’ tells the tale of Brendan who, 1200 years ago, was charged with completing the unfinished Book of Kells a task which saw him begin a new life of creativity and a new friendship with a girl called Aisling. It was produced by Didier Brunner, Viviane Vanfleteren and Paul Young, was written by Fabrice Ziolkowski, edited by Fabienne Alvarez-Giro and features the voice of IFTA winner Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, Into the Storm).

‘The Rooster, the Crocodile and the Night Sky’, from Barley Films, tells a tale of passion, loss, surreal comedy and explosive violence through the characters mentioned in the title. Directed by Pádraig Fagan, narrated by Frank Kelly (Evelyn) and with animation by Eimhin McNamara and Orla McHardy the film is animated in a cut-out style using cardboard, tinfoil, paint on glass animation and super-8 film footage to create a dreamy hand made aesthetic. It was produced by Barry O’Donoghue (Boys Night Out). The film was made with the support of The Irish Film Board, The Arts Council and RTÉ under the Film Board’s Frameworks scheme for short animation.

The Annie Awards were created in 1972 to celebrate lifetime or career contributions to animation in categories such as producing, directing, animation, design, writing, voice acting, sound and sound effects. In 1992 they introduced the category of Best Animated Feature.