Press Release from British Animation Awards:
Aardman Animations, Harry Potter, the Quay Brothers, Gorillaz and The Gruffalo’s Child are among the winners at the ninth British Animation Awards (BAAs) held Thursday at the BFI Southbank.
Hosted by comedian Thom Tuck, the biennial British Animation Awards honor the finest achievements in animation produced in Britain over the last two years.
BAA Awards Director Jayne Pilling announced at the ceremony that Paddington Bear has been voted Britain’s Favorite Ever Animated Character. The cuddly bear from Peru beat a shortlist of other distinguished characters including Super Ted, Aleksandr Meerkat and Wallace and Gromit in the special vote run by BAA in conjunction with animation group Animation UK to celebrate the illustrious heritage of characters created in the UK that could disappear if the animation industry continues to decline in this country.
Aardman Animations’ produced commercials Nokia: Dot and Nokia: Gulp directed by Sumo Science took the awards for Best Commercial: Stop Motion and Best Commissioned Animation. Nokia: Dot and Gulp both have Guinness World Records: Dot for having the smallest stop-motion character and Gulp the largest stop-motion animation set.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: The Tale of the Three Brothers animated sequence swept up the BAA for Best Film/TV Graphics.
The Gruffalo’s Child and the Quay Brothers’ Maska took joint first place in the Best Long Form category. Whilst BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Grant Orchard sauntered home with the BAA for Best Short Film for A Morning Stroll produced by Studio AKA.
In the children’s categories Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball picked up two BAA’s winning Best Children’s Series and also the children’s jury judged Children’s Choice Award. Astley Baker Davies took home Best Preschool Series for Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom and Happy Films’ Bookaboo collected the BAA for Best Mixed Media Children’s Series.
Best Music Video was awarded to Kate Anderson for Liz Green’s Displacement, Coca Cola: Siege grabbed the Best Commercial: 3D and Tempo: Bike won Best Commercial: 2D.
The Best Student Award went to Royal College of Art Graduate Mikey Please for Eagleman Stag.
In the Public Choice categories voted for by the public at over 20 screenings across the country, Bertie Crisp by Francesca Adams voiced by Kathy Burke, Tamsin Greig and Mark Benton won the Best Short Film, Gorillaz: Stylo took the Best Music Video, and Pilsner Urquell Legends: The Day Pilsner Struck Gold picked up Best Commercial.
The first ever BAA Sting Competition, an exciting new category where animators were asked to create a special sting for the Awards, proved hugely popular. The winners were picked by a jury from online favorites with Karrot Animation taking the public vote, Mole Hill and Chris Tichborne the Professional category and Chloe Rodham the Student and recent Graduate category. The winning stings were shown during the award ceremony.
In place of a statuette all the winners took home a BAA, a unique artwork created especially for the occasion by a range of leading international and UK animation artists. In recognition of the awards acronym the artworks need to feature sheep with the option of a visual reference to the UK and animation.
BAA Director Jayne Pilling said: “At a time when the UK Animation industry faces an uncertain future we have been overwhelmed by the strength and breadth of talent featured in this year’s awards and would like to warmly congratulate all our winners.”
The BAA’s are the only awards to recognize all forms of animation and reward the work of both new and established animators for short films, animated graphics for film and television, children’s series, music videos and commercials.