D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation

The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award is "presented to the individual or team whose work represents the highest level of achievement in bringing a character or characters to life. This award will consider the fluidity of movement, and interaction with the environment in addition to contextual realism (look and feel)". Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as an artist, animator or programmer are qualified to vote for this award.

The award's most recent winner is Astro Bot, developed by Team Asobi and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Animation & Art Direction

The Academy originally offered Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics at the first two annual awards ceremonies. This would be separated into the categories of Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the third annual awards ceremony. Since the categories separated, roughly half of the finalists and winners for "Animation" and "Art Direction" were the same game within its respective release year. The games that had won both awards for "Animation" and "Art Direction" were:

The games that won the "Animation" award but were not finalists in the "Art Direction" category were:

2022 was the only year that the "Animation" and "Art Direction" categories had the same five finalists and winner. 2025 was the only year that the two categories did not have any of the same finalists.

Winners and nominees

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple nominations and wins

Developers and publishers

Sony has published the most nominees and winners. Sony has the distinction of publishing the most nominees within a year (three) on four separate occasions (during the awards ceremony in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2014). Sony has two winning streaks for publishing the category winners (2010 to 2012, and 2021 to 2025). Activision has published the most nominees without a single winner.

Sony's development subsidiary Naughty Dog has developed the most winners in this category. Ubisoft Montreal has developed the most nominees, and is one of two developers with back-to-back wins, with the other being SquareSoft. Ubisoft Montpellier, formerly known as "Ubi Pictures", has developed the most nominees without a single winner.

Franchises

Assassin's Creed and Final Fantasy have been the most nominated franchises, while Uncharted and God of War have been the most award-winning franchises. Final Fantasy is the only franchise to have back-to-back wins. Call of Duty is the most nominated franchise that has never won.