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'Room on the Broom' Wins BAFTA Award

Magic Light Pictures’ Room on the Broom wins a BAFTA Children’s Award for animation.

Magic Light PicturesRoom on the Broom has won a BAFTA Children’s Award in the Animation category on Sunday night.

“Martin and I love creating films that have quality and integrity at their heart, and are very proud of Room on the Broom,” says Michael Rose, co-founder with Martin Pope of Magic Light Pictures. “We‘re grateful to BAFTA for this award, and the Academy’s recognition of the work that has gone into creating a film that is enchanting audiences globally.”

The film of the best-selling and much-loved picture book, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, tells the story of a kind witch (voiced by Gillian Anderson) who invites a number of animals to join her on her broom. The voice talent also includes Rob Brydon as the Cat, Martin Clunes as the Dog, Sally Hawkins as the Bird, Simon Pegg as the narrator , Timothy Spall as the Dragon and David Walliams as the Frog. The film was directed by Max Lang and Jan Lachauer.

Room on the Broom first premiered on BBC One to 7.6m viewers as part of its Christmas programming in 2012, and also aired on Sprout in the US this October. It has been sold to over 30 broadcasters airing across over 167 countries worldwide, and translated into 16 languages. The film has also had cinema runs in the UK and US and opens across France on 27th November, distributed by Les Films du Preau.

Room on the Broom has also been nominated for a 2013 international Kids Emmy Award, in the pre-school category, and has already won a number of top accolades including: Royal Television Society Awards – Best Children’s Programme, Annecy Animation Festival – Cristal for Best Television Production, and TIFF Kids International Film Festival – Best Animated Short Film.

The DVD successfully launched in the UK in March 2013 with over 100,000 units sold to-date, and over 110,000 units shipped in the USA since release in August. Internationally, the Room on the Broom DVD is also being distributed in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong and Scandinavia. Magic Light Pictures also recently launched an app of games called Room on the Broom Games which hit number one in the iTunes Kids chart, and which forms part of the work that Magic Light is doing to grow the brand.

The book, which was first published in 2001 by Macmillan, continues to be a huge success with over two million copies sold worldwide. In the US, it claimed the number one spot in the Children’s Picture Book Category this Halloween for the second year running.

Room on the Broom follows on from the success that Magic Light Pictures had with The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, with The Gruffalo winning over 15 awards including the Prix Jeunesse 2010, and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA and the Cartoon D’Or.

Source: Magic Light Pictures

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.