Irish Animation Awards 2025 Winners announced in Galway

Turnip + Duck's Colm Tobin and Aidan O'Donovan with Maddie + Triggs' star Bonnie O'Meara.
Photo: Aengus McMahon

The Irish Animation Awards celebrated the amazingly creative and talented people who work in the industry over the weekend - and it was a big night for RTÉjr!

More than 328 entries were viewed and considered by an extensive Irish and international jury. Winners in each category received awards created by filmmaker, animator, and illustrator Eimhin McNamara.

Dublin studio Turnip + Duck emerged top of the leaderboard with an impressive four award haul for their groundbreaking RTÉjr series Maddie + Triggs, which bagged Best Animated Preschool Series (up to 6 years old), Best Original Song, Best New IP, and Best Innovation Awards. Maddie + Triggs follows the adventures of a curious little girl and her doggy best friend who find music and adventure in everyday sounds.

Maddie is a seven-year-old girl who just so happens to have a vision impairment. The show is built around five core pillars: accessibility, representation, education, empowerment, and collaboration. Maddie is voiced by Bonnie O'Meara, the visually impaired star of the show and narrated by acclaimed actor and presenter Siobhán McSweeney.

Roscommon's Studio Meala landed two Irish Animation Awards for the hit TV series Doodle Girl. Young Dublin actress Aisling Walsh who claimed the Best Voice Acting accolade over a highly competitive Irish and international field as well as Kids Choice for Best Animated Preschool Series (Under 6 Years Old).

Doodle Girl star Aisling Walsh with Studio Meala's Sean Cunningham. Photo: Aengus McMahon

Kilkenny's Cartoon Saloon, scooped three Irish Animation Awards including one for Best Storyboarding for Silly Sundays. They also won Best Design and Art Direction, and Best Original Score for Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 Screecher’s Reach.

Dublin studio Kavaleer Productions were honoured by peers and audiences alike with two awards for their superb series Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese, winning Best Animated Kids Series (over 6 years old) as voted by the panel of industry judges, and then scooping the Kids Choice for Best Animated Kids Series (over 6 years old) as voted by the children of Hazelwood Integrated Primary and Nursery in Belfast.

Also bringing two statues Liffeyside were Dublin’s Brown Bag Films who came out tops in the Best Script for a Feature Film or Special category for Lu and the Bally Bunch, while also winning the much-coveted Sustainability Champion 2025 Award. Two of Eimhin McNamara’s beautifully designed statues headed north to Belfast, one for ODO by Sixteen South and one for Paper Owl Film’s Nikhil and Jay.

Emerging Irish animation talent was firmly in the spotlight with IADT graduate James Naughton securing the Best Animated Student Film award for Every Other Weekend, which explores the experiences of children of divorce through a recollection of moments, memories, and vignettes.

Niamh Asple and James Naughton with Paul Young of Cartoon Saloon the sponsor of The Best Student Short. Photo: Aengus McMahon

Best Animated Short Film - Ireland went to Retirement Plan directed by John Kelly, with a script co-written by Tara Lawall and John Kelly. It tells the story of Ray who, in the throes of his overstimulated, energy poor midlife, fantasises about everything he’d love to do in retirement once he finally has the "time." The film is voiced by Domhnall Gleeson.

Japanese animator Saki Muramoto took home Best International Animated Short Film for A Night at the Rest Area. The short is set in a highway rest area at midnight, where weary travellers each quietly relax their minds. A brief moment spent with complete strangers is lonely yet somehow comforting.

Galway's Moetion Films took home two Irish Animation Awards for The Magic Reindeer Saving Santa’s Sleigh, including Best Feature Film or Special, while fellow Galway studio Triggerfish Animation also bagged two awards on the night for their animated TV series Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire.

The Outstanding Contribution to Industry Award was presented to John Phelan, former Chair of the Irish Animation Industry and currently Commercial Director and Co-Founder of AdviseCPG.

Nominees Bonnie O'Meara, Freya McLaughlin and Aisling Walsh with Minister Patrick O'Donovan TD.
Photo: Aengus McMahon

The full list of award winners is here:

  • Outstanding Contribution to Industry Award - John Phelan

  • Best Animated Preschool Series (up to 6 years old) - Maddie + Triggs; Turnip + Duck (Dublin)

  • Best Animated Kids Series (over 6 years old) - Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese; Kavaleer Productions (Dublin)

  • Kids Choice for Best Animated Preschool Series (up to 6 years old) - Doodle Girl; Studio Meala (Roscommon)

  • Kids Choice for Best Animated Kids Series (over 6 years old) - Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese; Kavaleer Productions (Dublin)

  • Best Animated Short Film - Ireland - Retirement Plan; John Kelly, Independent (Dublin)

  • Best International Animated Short Film - A Night at the Rest Area; Saki Muramoto, Independent (Japan)

  • Best Script for an Animated Series - Nikhil and Jay: Messiest Mango; Paper Owl Films (Belfast)

  • Best Script for a Feature Film or Special - Lu and the Bally Bunch; Brown Bag Films (Dublin)

  • Best Design and Art Direction - Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 Screecher's Reach; Cartoon Saloon (Kilkenny)

  • Best Direction of an Animated TV Series - Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire; Triggerfish Animation (Galway)

  • Best Original Score - Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 Screecher’s Reach; Cartoon Saloon (Kilkenny)

  • Best Original Song - Maddie + Triggs: Pearly Whites; Turnip + Duck (Dublin)

  • Best Sound Design - The Magic Reindeer Saving Santa’s Sleigh; Moetion Films (Galway)

  • Best Feature Film or Special - The Magic Reindeer Saving Santa’s Sleigh; Moetion Films (Galway)

  • Best New IP - Maddie + Triggs; Turnip + Duck (Dublin)

  • Best Editing - ODO; Sixteen South (Belfast)

  • Best Storyboarding - Silly Sundays: Cartoon Saloon (Kilkenny)

  • Best Animated Student Film - Every Other Weekend; James Naughton, Independent (IADT graduate)

  • Best VFX Animation - Kizazi Moto Generation Fire; Triggerfish Animation (Galway)

  • Best Innovation - Maddie + Triggs; Turnip + Duck (Dublin)

  • Best Voice Acting - Doodle Girl: Aisling Walsh; Studio Meala (Roscommon)

  • Sustainability Champion 2025 - Brown Bag Films - Industry & Community Outreach Committee

The Irish Animation Awards are a biennial event, celebrating more than 2,500 highly skilled animation professionals who make and create across the island of Ireland, from Dublin to Galway, Derry to Cork. Irish animated films and series are enjoyed by children and adults in 182 countries worldwide, with Irish animation studios and their workforces in huge demand internationally, valued for their creativity, craft, professionalism, and commitment.

The Irish Animation Awards 2025 are made possible with the support of Primary Sponsor Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, and RTÉjr. With thanks to Coimisiún na Meán, Enterprise Ireland, Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet, Corpay, Northern Ireland Screen, TG4, Aon, Brophy Gillespie, Creative Europe Ireland Media, ERA, Gorilla Post Production, Nickelodeon, Milkshake, Menagerie Media Group, National Talent Academy for Animation, Toon Boom Animation and Tyrell.

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