Winners announced for British Animation Awards

The winners have been announced for the British Animation Awards 2022 at a ceremony held last night at London’s BFI Southbank, presented by comedian Miles Jupp and sponsored by Hanna Barbera Studios Europe. 

Now in their 26th year, the British Animation Awards (BAAs) attract the great and the good from one of the nation’s most successful creative industries to this biennial celebration of their craft.

Gathering momentum ahead of the Academy Awards later this month, Britain’s two Oscar-nominated short films Affairs of the Art and Robin Robin were triumphant in their categories, with Affairs of the Art picking up three awards: Best Short Film, Writers Award and Best Voice Performance (for 86-year-old Little Britain star Menna Trussler as ‘Beryl’).

Created by film-making partners Joanna Quinn and Les Mills, Affairs of the Art continues the story of larger-than-life Welsh housewife Beryl who has artistic ambitions on a grand scale. Meanwhile Robin Robin, Aardman Animations’ Netflix Original film about an optimistic robin raised by a family of mice, won the award for Best Original Music for its score written by The Bookshop Band (Ben Please and Beth Porter).

London-based animation studio Magic Light Pictures was successful in two categories, with BBC One Christmas special Zog and the Flying Doctors winning for Best Use of Sound and Milkshake! and Sky Kids series Pip and Posy picking up the award for Best Children’s Pre-School.  Meanwhile, the Best Children’s category was won by Fourth Wall’s feline-focused series Milo, also shown on Channel 5’s Milkshake!

One of the closest-fought categories of the night was the prestigious Best Long Form category, which saw victory for Locksmith Animation’s debut feature Ron’s Gone Wrong. Directed by Jean-Phillipe Vine, Sarah Smith and Octavio E Rodriguez, the film tells the story of a socially awkward middle-schooler who befriends a defective robot.

Best Animation in a Commercial category was won by Airwick for its Breath of Nature campaign, directed by Peter Szewczyk of Nerd Productions, while animator Ged Haney took home the Best Music Video Award for Rocket Freudental’s ‘Der Stuhlkreis’.

 A hard-hitting film featuring the voices of some of Hollywood’s hottest stars picked up the award for Best Factual award. Save Ralph, an animated short film about the cruelty of testing on animals, produced for the Humane Society International, was written and directed by Spencer Susser and features the voices of Taika Waititi, Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron and Oliver Munn.

Meanwhile, the Social Good category was won by Typically, a film aiming to remove the taboo surrounding periods, produced for period poverty charity Bloody Good Period and directed by Anna Ginsburg and Caitlin McCarthy.

In two of the new categories for 2022, the Best Immersive Animation award was picked up by Grant Berry and Dane Winn’s The Beast, while the Wildcard category was won by Osbert Parker’s Timeline.

Continuing to challenge the status quo, the Cutting-Edge award was won by Jamie Jay Johnson and Asa Movshovitz’s E4 series about a role-playing fantasy game, Dead Pixels. And this year’s Design Award was won by Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, a Netflix Original directed by Ian Spendloff, with VFX by Lucy Hare.

Some of the leading British animation courses were represented in the Best Undergraduate and Best Postgraduate Student film categories, including nominees from Falmouth University School of Film and Television, University of Creative Arts in Farnham, Arts University Bournemouth, Royal College of Arts London and National Film & Television School. The winners were Renee Zahn’s (NFTS) O Black Hotel! for Best Postgraduate Student Film and Miles Jezuita’s (Arts University Bournemouth) Suburb for Best Undergraduate Student Film.

Introduced in 2020, The Lamb Award bridges the gap between current categories which recognise student achievements and general best-in-class awards, and is open to any young professionals working in the animation and VFX industry. The winner of the 2022 Lamb Award is Production Coordinator Hodan Abdi, who was nominated by Illuminated Films.

Three awards on the night were decided by members of the public, voting for their favourites in a special online poll.  The winners of these audience awards were:  Tony Comley’s Time to Recover for Best Music Video, Uri Lotan’s Black Slide for Best Short Film and Sky Kids’ hit children’s series The Brilliant World of Tom Gates for the Children’s Choice Award.

The awards themselves (the BAAs) are unique artworks, featuring sheep, created especially for the occasion by a range of leading international and UK animation artists. This year’s awards include designs by author/illustrators Liz Pichon and Rachel Bright and legendary film-maker Terry Gilliam.

BAA Director Helen Brunsdon and Producer Kieran Argo said: “We have been amazed at the quality of the entrants for this year’s British Animation Awards and would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and nominees.  After a particularly tough couple of years animation continues to be one of the most productive and creative industries in the UK”.

The BAAs are the only awards to recognise all forms of animation and reward the work of both new and established animators across all aspects of the UK Animation scene, from student work to commercials, children’s entertainment, short and experiential films, music videos and new technologies.

 

APC Kids lands Kid-E-Cats toy distribution for Spain and Portugal with Bizak

APC Kids has appointed Bizak as its toy distribution partner across Spain and Portugal for the new toy range based on CTC Media’s popular animated series, Kid-E-Cats. Handling local distribution, Bizak’s roll-out is scheduled to start in Q2 2021.

In addition, APC Kids has finalised a deal with Spain’s RTVE for Kid-E-Cats season three, following its success with seasons one and two on its Clan channel as one of its top preschool shows. Last year, El Ocho was appointed as the property’s licensing agent in Spain and Portugal.

Owned and managed by CTC Media and produced by Studio Metrafilms, Kid-E-Cats is one of the leading pre-school series across Russia. It has recently been commissioned for a fourth season and currently airs on Nick Jr in over 170 territories. It is currently available worldwide on Netflix.

The first three seasons have seen great success internationally, alongside the consumer products roll-out, with more than 70 licensees and 1,400 product lines worldwide, and the 24 Kid-E-Cats educational mobile games, which have now garnered 39 million downloads to date.

Lionel Marty, managing director of APC Kids, said: “As Kid-E-Cats’ global appeal continues to grow, it’s great to be able to bring additional ways for children to enjoy and interact with the loveable characters. We are thrilled Bizak is on board to roll out the toys in Spain and Portugal where we have seen great engagement – and excited to see the show going from strength to strength with our partners RTVE. We can’t wait to see the product at retail this year.”

Aitor Eguía, Bizak’s product manager, added: “At Bizak, we are convinced of the success of Kid-E-Cats in Iberia and we are going to put all our efforts so that Cookie, Candy and Pudding become children’s most beloved characters.”

The series tells the story of three kittens: Cookie, Pudding and their kid sister Candy who are forever ready to jump into action with endless enthusiasm and energy. Their imagination also knows no bounds, and these kitties are capable of the most absurdly funny problem-solving suggestions.

Aardman and Netflix partner for Chicken Run sequel on 20th anniversary of original feature film

By today’s standards, 20 years is but a blip in a timeline of waiting for a movie sequel emerge, and exactly two decades on from the release of its first Chicken Run outing, Aardman has declared its intention to deliver the goods.

In partnership with none other than Netflix, the pair have confirmed that work is underway on a follow up feature to 2000’s hit movie, Chicken Run. The news was announced initially at a Making Of panel at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival by the directors at Aardman Animations.

Netflix confirmed the announcement shortly after via a post on its social media platforms.

‘Having pulled off a death-defyng escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world,’ reads the official line from the feature film’s developers.

‘When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland, the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their on hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in.’

In a statement, Aardman Studio’s Peter Lord added: “Fans around the world have waited patiently for a sequel idea worthy of Chicken Run so we’re delighted to announce, on the 20th anniversary, that we’ve found the perfect story.

“Netflix feels like the ideal creative partner for this project too – they celebrate the film-maker, which means we can make the film we want to make – the one we really care about – and share it with a global audience.”

 

Shaun the Sheep and The Snail and the Whale among winners at British Animation Awards 2020

The talent behind some of Britain’s best animation over the past year, including The Snail and the Whale, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, The Adventures of Paddington, and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon were celebrated at the British Animation Awards 2020 this week.

Held at London’s BFI Southbank, the BAAs was hosted by comedian and actor Miles Jupp who kicked off a ceremony dedicated to recognising all forms of animation and honour the achievements of the British animation scene from the past two years.

Top awards went to Sally Hawkins for her work on the animated adaptation of the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler book, The Snail and the Whale, David Arnold for Best Original Music for The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and to Nick Jr for its pre-school series, The Adventures of Paddington.

Hawkins scooped up the award for Best Voice Performance for her portrayal of Snail in Snail and the Whale, Magic Light Pictures’ festive animation about a mollusc on an epic adventure.

Meanwhile there were three major awards for acclaimed studio Aardman Animations, which picked up the prestigious award for Best Long Form Animation for its hugely successful madcap caper A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmaggedon (directed by Will Becher and Richard Phelan), the Children’s Choice Award for an episode from its CBBC series Shaun The Sheep: Squirreled Away(directed by Carmen Bromfield-Mason), and Best Music Video for Coldplay’s “Daddy” (directed by Asa Lucanda).

Staying in the children’s TV categories, Adam Shaw and Chris Drew picked up the Best Children’s Pre-School Series award for their charming Nick Jr. series The Adventures of Paddington – which features the voice of Ben Wishaw as Paddington and a song written and performed by Gary Barlow.

Erstwhile awards and audience favourite The Amazing Adventures of Gumball added another two BAAs to its collection picking up Best Use of Sound and the Writers Award for Richard Overall, Mic Graves and Tony Hull.

Meanwhile, the Best Children’s Series was awarded to Gutsy Animations’ Sky One series Moominvalley (directed by Steve Box), which was praised by the judges for its “undeniable beauty” and “top-notch vocal performances”.

The Best Original Music Award went to multi award-winning duo David Arnold and Don Black for Lupus Films’ The Tiger Who Came to Tea.

 Some of the leading British animation courses were represented in both Best Undergraduate and Best Postgraduate Student film categories including nominees from Falmouth University School of Film and Television, University of Creative Arts in Farnham, Arts University Bournemouth and the Royal College of Arts London.

The winner of the all-female nominated Best Undergraduate Student Film category was Megan Earls from UCA, Farnham for Border/Line and the victor of the Best Postgraduate Student Film was Alex Widdowson, also from RCA, for his film Music and Clowns.

 In other categories: The Best Short Film was awarded to Jonathan Hodgson for Roughhouse, which the judges described as a “masterful piece of short form storytelling”. The Best Animation in a Commercial award went to Thomas Harnett O’Meara and Matthew Day for their charming take on The Wind in the Willows for The Wildlife Trusts; The Best Film or TV Graphic, Motion Design was awarded to Second Home Studios for its “varied and imaginative idents” for DaVinci Learning.

The Best Commissioned Animation was picked up by Moth Studio for the “beautifully delicate animation” in Conception: Catie & Jen: The Best Immersive Category was won by Marshmallow Laser Feast for We Live in an Ocean of Air, which was praised for “inspiring us to think about nature in a different way”.

Finally, in a new category for 2020, the Best Social Good Award rewarded Danny Capozzi for his animation for United for Global Mental Health – New Mindset.

BAA Director, Helen Brunsdon, said: “This is my first year at the helm of the BAAs and I was blown away by the quality of the entries this year. The BAAs are a brilliant way to showcase the incredible talent we have here in the UK and help cement Britain’s position as one of the leading countries in the world for animation.”

Held every two years, the British Animation Awards (BAAs) reward the very best new and established British animators across a variety of categories including short films, animated graphics for film and television, children’s series, music videos and commercials.

The awards themselves (the BAAs) are unique artworks, featuring sheep, created especially for the occasion by a range of leading international and UK animation artists: a measure of the world-wide respect felt for British animation.