I am pleased to announce to you something that has been in the works for the better part of this past year. Due to the failure of the Animation Source Awards (which will be held again this coming up year), I began thinking of what else Animation Source could do that would involve every member, and keep up with the tradition of voting for your favorite. Well, here’s what I’ve come up with: the ANIMATION SOURCE CHOICE AWARDS.

^Animation Source Choice Awards banner, courtesy of TwistedFate^

To start off, this is absolutely nothing like the ASA’s. You could view this as the equivalent of the Academy Awards, except that we are choosing the winners ourselves! This will be an annual event, starting with this year: the 1^st Annual Animation Source Choice Awards.

The rules to this are simple. Eligible films are those released between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year (in this case, films released in 2011). One judge will pick the films that are eligible for each category, with 17 categories total. (In this case, I will be acting as judge, but in years following I will allow someone else to judge if they wish.) The judge will also collect members’ votes.

Events for the 1^st Animation Source Choice Awards will happen in this order:

-       January 1: Eligible films announced for each category. Members are able to begin voting for a shortlist for each category.

-       January 31: Voting closes.

-       February 7: Nominees announced. Members can start voting for the ultimate pick.

-       February 29: Voting ends.

-       March 15: Winners announced at a live show by the judge. Posted on Animation Source the following day.

Each member can only vote for one choice per category. Please don’t try and use multiple accounts to gain more results; I’ll be in contact with the mods, and if I find out people use double accounts to vote more than once, all votes from that person for the categories voted in multiple times will be tossed away. In other words, just don’t do it.

Another thing: except for the “Fan Favorite” category, try and vote critically. That means, vote for what you feel deserves the win, rather than what you would like to see win. There is a difference, but if you feel that it will be too hard, that’s what the Fan Favorite category is for.

Anyone can vote, except for me, in order to keep the results unbiased. Here is the list of the categories that will be featured this year; whether they are kept in the years ahead or not, will depend on what happens this time around.

The categories:

-       Best Picture

-       Best Director

-       Best Screenplay

-       Best Voice Actor

-       Best Voice Actress

-       Best Sequel

-       Best Animation in a Feature Film

-       Film Most Likely to Receive a Sequel

-       Best Score

-       Best Song

-       Fan Favorite

-       Favorite Character (Male)

-       Favorite Character (Female)

-       Best Animated Video Game

-       Best Foreign-Release Film

-       Best Non-Theatrical Film

-       Best Animated TV Series

-       Special Recognition: Best Film of 1999

There are 18 films eligible for Best Picture; all other categories will have their own number of eligible films. Later you will find out what those films are, but for now, I am at least showing you the films eligible for some of the categories.

For Best Sequel: Happy Feet Two, Cars 2, Puss in Boots, Winnie the Pooh, Kung Fu Panda 2, Hoodwinked Too: Hood VS Evil.

For Film Most Likely to Receive a Sequel: Rio, Smurfs, Gnomeo & Juliet, Mars Needs Mom, Arthur Christmas.

For Best Animated Video Game: Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, Angry Birds Rio Edition, Happy Feet Two: The Game, Puss in Boots, Transformers Animated: The Video Game.

For Best Foreign-Release Film: Pokemon: Victini and the Black Hero: Zekrom/Victini and the White Hero: Reshiram (Japan), A Monster in Paris (France), Zambezia (South Africa), Orla Frosnapper (Denmark), Snowflake, Copito de Nieve, el gorilla blanco (Spain).

For Best Film of 1999: Tarzan, Toy Story 2, Pokemon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back, Fantasia 2000, The Iron Giant.

That’s all I’m showing you guys for now. The rest of the films and nominees-to-be for each category will be announced on January 1^st—which is the magic date that you can begin voting.

So that does it for now, as far as the Animation Source Choice Awards go. I'll be asking Steet to make a section on the AS Hub so you guys can learn more about it, and look up past winners in the future. So for now, anticipate the coming months. Go and watch as many animated films released in 2011 as you can, and get ready for the 1st Annual Animation Source Choice Awards!!!