Cartoon Saloon and Lighthouse Studios win at the Irish Animation Awards

Cartoon Saloon’s animated fantasy film My Father’s Dragon came out on top at the recent Irish Animation Awards with five wins, including the award for Best Irish Feature. Lighthouse Studios also scored two awards for their animated series The Cuphead Show!.

The Irish Animation Awards were held this weekend in Galway and it was a record year for the Irish Animation Awards as 53 Irish productions were nominated. The biennial awards which celebrate the talent of the Irish animation sector, have taken place in person for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cartoon Saloon, based in Kilkenny, are the five-time Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, BAFTA and Emmy nominated animation studio formed by Paul Young, Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey. ‘My Fathers Dragon’ was produced for Netflix and directed by Oscar-nominated Nora Twomey.

Lighthouse Studios is a BAFTA-winning 2D animation studio also based in Kilkenny. The Cuphead Show! is an animated series that airs on Netflix.

Winners of each category received a statuette designed by animator, filmmaker and teacher Eimhín McNamara resembling a Phenakistoscope, an early animation device used to create an illusion of motion.