Film wins Outstanding Animated Special, Sound Mixing/Sound Editing, Character Animation Individual Achievement
©Tsuburaya Productions, Netflix
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the winners for the 2025 Children’s & Family Emmys on Monday. Netflix and Tsuburaya Productions’ Ultraman: Rising, the latest Ultraman CG animated feature film, won in the “Outstanding Animated Special” category. The film also won “Outstanding Sound Mixing and Sound Editing for an Animated Program,” and animator James Saunders earned the award for “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation – Character Animation.”
The film was previously nominated for the “Best Feature” category in the 52nd Annual Annie Awards in December 2024. The film was also nominated for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature and Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature in the 23rd Annual VES Awards in January 2025.
The film had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2024, debuting on Netflix later that month. The film also had a limited theatrical run in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom in June 2024. The film ranked #2 on Netflix’s global top 10 on the the week of June 17-23, 2024, with 7.9 million views. The film also ranked on Netflix’s top 10 films in 69 countries, and recorded 16 million hours viewed.
Tsuburaya describes the film:
Baseball superstar Ken Sato returns to his home country of Japan to pick up the mantle of Earth-defending superhero Ultraman, but quickly finds more than he bargained for when he’s forced to raise the offspring of his greatest foe, a newborn Kaiju. Struggling to balance the roles of teammate and new father, Ken must confront his own ego, his estranged father, and the conniving Kaiju Defense Force to rise up and discover what it truly means to be Ultraman.
Shannon Tindle (animator for Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings) made his feature directorial debut with this film, with John Aoshima as co-director. Tsuburaya Productions and Industrial Light and Magic are credited as the production companies. Tindle also co-wrote the film with Marc Haimes. Tom Knott is credited as producer, and Lisa Poole as co-producer. The film is based on characters by Eiji Tsuburaya (Godzilla, Ultraman).
Sources: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ website, Deadline (Erik Pedersen, Natalie Oganesyan)
