There’s a lot of donghua awards in China. Those are categorized as follows:
Awards primarily for animation or ACG:
1. China Cultural and Artistic Government Award for Animation
This award held every 3 year by Ministry of Culture & Tourism China for animation film and series. Example of winner: White Cat Legend. The 5th China Cultural and Artistic Government Award will be held this year in 2026
2. CACC Golden Dragon Award
It’s the main award of the China International Cartoon & Animation Festival that held each year.
3. Golden Monkey King Awards
Organized by China Media Group, it’s one of the highest awards in the Chinese animation industry.
4. Golden Dolphin Awards
Hosted by the Xiamen Municipal People’s Government, and is one of the most authoritative and influential awards in China’s animation and game industry. Also include international nominees.
5. New Light Awards
It’s a large-scale, professional animation competition held in Xi’an every year that also receive submission from abroad.
6. The China (Jilin) Animation Awards
It is awarded in China (Jilin) Animation Conference, an important event in the domestic animation industry (although not as authoritative as the awards above)
Awards that not specifically for animation but also give awards to animation
1. Magnolia Awards
It is one of the most prestigious awards in Chinese Television industry. Also give nomination for international animation. Example of donghua that has won Magnolia Awards are Scissor Seven & Yao-Chinese Folktales. Last year, Slay The Gods are nominated for this award. The winner was Arcane.
2. China TV Golden Eagle Award
One of the most prestigious awards for Chinese television industry, aside from Magnolia Awards. Example of donghua that are nominated for best animation: The Ravages of Time
3. China TV Drama Awards
Also one of big awards for Chinese television industry. They first give awards to donghua in 2025.
4. Golden Panda Awards
The nominations are from domestic & international. Example of donghua that has received nomination: The Swords
5. Golden Puffer Awards
This is also one of important awards in Chinese television industry albeit not as authoritative as awards above.
6. Various Online Literature Awards & Screenwriting Awards
There’s several online literature awards that also give awards for the adaptation of online novel, such as New Era Online Literature “White Horse Award”, China “Online Literature+” Conference IP Night, etc. For screenwriting awards, there’s also Golden Screenwriter’s Night.
7. Various Audiovisual Awards
There’s several audiovisual awards that also give awards to animation, although not always. For example China Online Video Academy Awards (Golden Spider Awards) and China Online Audiovisual Golden Orange Index.
8. Weibo Culture Night
It is a large-scale annual cultural event jointly organized by Weibo and the Zhengzhou Municipal government, honoring cultural IP, including animation.
Those awards above are independent awards that give animation awards, the winners are selected by independent & professional jury.
Important Platform Awards
There’s also important industry awards that given to honor the hard work of creators in their own platform. For example:
1. Tencent Video Golden Penguin Awards
This awards are given to donghua/ animation that broadcasted in Tencent Video.
2. Yuewen Global IP Awards
This awards are given mostly to IP related to Yuewen.
3. iQiyi Golden Petal Awards
This one is for donghua/ animation that broadcasted in iQiyi, and also other outstanding talent in animation and comics. But it seems this awards is discontinued.
Media & Community Awards
Various media (news agency, magazine, etc) and community/organization give awards for film, drama/series, including animation. This one doesn’t hold much weight.
Those are national level awards, there’s also provincial level awards like Hubei Provincial Radio & TV Awards, etc.
The lowest in term of prestige are awards given through voting. For example, ACG Dimension Awards. Winning this one means the animation has a lot of fans/liked by many people. Which is nice, but the prestige is less than winner picked by professional jury. Still very nice though, since it means the winning donghua are popular.
If you want to know list of award-winning donghua, you can read it here.
My Donghua Review 