Irish animated feature Wolfwalkers, tipped for Oscars, picks up US Film Critics Circle Awards

Cartoon Saloon’s animated feature Wolfwalkers has picked up the Best Animated Feature Award at three of the top US Film Critics Circle Awards – New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. 

Created by the Kilkenny animation studio, Cartoon Saloon, Wolfwalkers is also nominated in the same category for the Chicago Film Critics Circle Awards which will be announced on Monday (Dec 21) evening. The news comes after the animation picked up the Best Irish Film Award from the Dublin Film Critics Circle on Friday.

Wolfwalkers charted as the number one film at the Irish box office on its opening weekend earlier this month and was the first Irish film since Black 47 in 2018 to reach the coveted top spot.  Variety has tipped it to win the Best Animated Film Oscar next year.

The film is the third animated feature from two-time Academy Award® -nominee Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea) and Ross Stewart and is co-produced by Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon and Melusine Productions.  

Wolfwalkers follows Robyn Goodfellowe, a young apprentice hunter who journeys to Ireland with her father in a time of superstition and magic to wipe out the last wolf pack. While exploring the forbidden lands outside the city walls, Robyn befriends a free-spirited girl, Mebh, a member of a mysterious tribe rumored to have the ability to transform into wolves by night. As they search for Mebh’s missing mother, Robyn uncovers a secret that draws her further into the enchanted world of the “Wolfwalkers" and risks turning into the very thing her father is tasked to destroy.

The Apple Original film is directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart and written by Will Collins (Song of the Sea). Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, and Stéphan Roelants serve as producers. It follows Moore’s two prior Oscar® -nominated animated features, The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, as well as Cartoon Saloon’s Oscar® -nominated The Breadwinner. 

It had its world premiere at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year and also screened at the prestigious BFI London Film Festival to great critical acclaim. 

An official Ireland-Luxembourg co-production, Wolfwalkers was produced with the participation of Value & Power Culture Communications Co, FIS/Screen Ireland, Film Fund Luxembourg, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, RTE, Canal +, OCS and the Pole Image Magelis, Charente Region Fund.