BAFTA Announces 2015 Children's Awards Nominations

LONDON -- The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the nominations for the 20th British Academy Children’s Awards, which honor the very best in children’s media. The ceremony will be held at the Roundhouse, London, on Sunday, November 22 and will be hosted by Doc Brown.

Leading the way with three nominations is Horrible Histories. The latest instalment of the gruesomely entertaining history show is nominated in both the Comedy and Writing categories for its special Magna Carta episode, while Jessica Ransom is nominated in the Performer category for her portrayal later in the series of Mary, Queen of Scots.

A number of programs have received two nominations each: Peppa Pig receives its ninth nomination for Preschool: Animation and its fourth in the Writer category; last year’s Factual winner, Operation Ouch!, is nominated once again in the same category and receives its first Presenter nomination for Drs. Alexander & Chris van Tulleken; Sam Nixon & Mark Rhodes are also Presenter nominees for their Christmas special of Sam & Mark’s Big Friday Wind-Up, which picks up a nomination in the Entertainment category too; and The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, based on the children’s books by Norman Hunter, is nominated for Comedy, with Harry Hill nominated in the title role.

Also with two nominations is wartime children’s drama Harriet’s Army, which is nominated in both the Drama and Writer categories. Joining it in the Drama category is The Dumping Ground, with its associated game The Dumping Ground: You're The Boss featuring in the Interactive: Adapted category. The final two nominations for Drama are Wolfblood and the television adaptation of Katie Morag, based on the books by Mairi Hedderwick. Completing the Comedy category are All At Sea and Gigglebiz with Justin Fletcher. Justin’s House is also nominated in Entertainment along with pirate gameshow Swashbuckle and cookery show Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch.

The International category features three first-time nominees: Clarence, Gravity Falls, and Nowhere Boys. They are joined by past nominee, Adventure Time, whose accompanying mobile app, Adventure Time Game Wizard, is nominated in the Game category together with Splatoon, Yoshi’s Woolly World and Minecraft Console Edition. The Minecraft team was also presented with the YGD Hero Award at the Young Game Designers ceremony earlier this year.

There are more first-time nominees in the Preschool: Animation category where classic remake The Clangers is joined by Lily’s Driftwood Bay and Hey Duggee. CBeebies’ Elves and the Shoemaker, My Pet and Me and Topsy and Tim also make their debut in Preschool: Live Action along with last year’s winner, Old Jack’s Boat.

The four films nominated in the Feature Film category are: Big Hero 6, Inside Out, Paddington and Shaun the Sheep: The Movie. On the small screen, Shaun the Sheep also picks up a consecutive nomination for Animation, where it is joined by The Amazing World of Gumball, Strange Hill High and Mr Bean: The Animated Series based on the original comedy starring Rowan Atkinson and still voiced by the star.

The BAFTA Kids Vote launched earlier this week. Until November 21, children aged seven to 14 can cast their votes at the new-look BAFTA Kids website -- www.baftakids.org -- which includes online challenges, competitions, and information on BAFTA’s year-round events and initiatives that give families an insight into creative excellence within film, television and games, through behind-the-scenes roadshows, workshops and masterclasses, and special hospice screenings.

The BAFTA Kids Vote is supported by its official media partner, Fun Kids Radio. Children can access exclusive content and competitions via www.funkidslive.com.

The full list of nominations is shown below:

ANIMATION

• THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL Ben Bocquelet, Mic Graves, Sarah Fell - Great Marlborough Productions Ltd/Cartoon Network
• MR BEAN THE ANIMATED SERIES Production Team - Tiger Aspect Productions/CITV
• SHAUN THE SHEEP John Woolley, Steve Box, Lee Wilton - Aardman/CBBC
• STRANGE HILL HIGH Josh Weinstein, Kat Van Henderson, Geoff Walker - CBBC In House Production with Fremantle and Factory/CBBC

CHANNEL OF THE YEAR

• CARTOON NETWORK
• CBBC
• CBEEBIES
• CYW

COMEDY

• ALL AT SEA Brian Lynch, Mark Oswin, Simon Nelson - CBBC/CBBC
• GIGGLEBIZ Anna Perowne, Vanessa Amberleigh, Simon Brown - CBeebies/CBeebies
• HORRIBLE HISTORIES SPECIAL Production Team - Lion TV/BBC Two
• THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF PROFESSOR BRANESTAWM Sandy Johnson, Rosemary McGowan, Charlie Higson - BBC Comedy Production London/BBC One

DRAMA

• THE DUMPING GROUND Julie Dixon, Nigel Douglas, Philip Leach - CBBC/CBBC
• HARRIET’S ARMY Guy Burt, Stewart Svaasand, Foz Allen - CBBC/CBBC
• KATIE MORAG Production Team - Move On Up/CBeebies
• WOLFBLOOD Debbie Moon, Jonathan Wolfman, Sallie Aprahamian - CBBC with ZDF/CBBC

ENTERTAINMENT

• JUSTIN'S HOUSE Philip Cooper, Becky Overton, Iwan Watson - CBeebies/CBeebies
• MATILDA AND THE RAMSAY BUNCH Production Team - One Potato Two Potato/CBBC
• SAM & MARK’S BIG FRIDAY WIND UP Sid Cole, David Beardsell, Tony Grech-Smith - CBBC/CBBC
• SWASHBUCKLE Martin Williams-Neale, Geoff Coward, Jon Hancock - CBeebies/CBeebies

FACTUAL

• BEING ME: A NEWSROUND SPECIAL Steph Atkinson, Millie Innes, Kirsti Adair - CBBC/CBBC
• I AM LEO (MY LIFE) Phil Niland, Cat Lewis, Lyndsay Rowan - Nine Lives Media/CBBC
• MR ALZHEIMERS AND ME (MY LIFE) Chloe Fairweather, Natasha Dack - Tigerlily Productions/CBBC
• OPERATION OUCH! Production Team - Maverick Television/CBBC

FEATURE FILM

• BIG HERO 6 Roy Conli, Chris Williams, Don Hall - Walt Disney Animation Studios
• INSIDE OUT Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen, Jonas Rivera - Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• PADDINGTON Paul King, David Heyman - Heyday Films/Studio Canal
• SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE MOVIE Mark Burton, Richard Starzak, Julie Lockhart, Paul Kewley - Aardman/Studio Canal

GAME

• ADVENTURE TIME GAME WIZARD Development Team - Turner Broadcasting System Inc/Cartoon Network
• MINECRAFT CONSOLE EDITION Development Team - 4J Studios/Mojang
• SPLATOON Development Team - Nintendo/Mojang
• YOSHI'S WOOLLY WORLD Development Team - Nintendo/Mojang

INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR

• FACTORY
• LIME PICTURES
• PRETZEL TV
• SOMETHIN' ELSE

INTERACTIVE - ADAPTED

• CBEEBIES STORYTIME APP John Kearney, Sarah Parsons, Robin Gibson - CBeebies
• THE DUMPING GROUND: YOU'RE THE BOSS Development Team - CBBC Interactive/Somethin’ Else
• GRUFFALO: GAMES Development Team - Magic Light Pictures/Stormcloud Games
• TRANSFORMERS: ROBOTS IN DISGUISE Development Team - Marmalade Game Studio

INTERACTIVE - ORIGINAL

• ESCARGOT ESCAPE ARTISTES Alex Heron, Jim Tonge, Jake Manion - CBBC with Aardman Digital
• MONSTER MINGLE Chris O'Shea, Wip Vernooij, Nick Stoney - Cowly Owl
• TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ 3: CHAMPION READER Development Team - Usborne Foundation
• VIRRY Svetlana Dragayeva, Martin Percy, Joanna Fogler - Fountain Digital Labs / UNIT9

INTERNATIONAL

• ADVENTURE TIME Production Team - Cartoon Network Studios/Cartoon Network
• CLARENCE Production Team - Cartoon Network Studios/Cartoon Network
• GRAVITY FALLS Production Team - Disney XD/Disney XD
• NOWHERE BOYS Beth Frey, Tony Ayres, Daina Reid - Matchbox Pictures/CBBC

LEARNING - PRIMARY

• FILMING OUR GREATEST GENERATION Production Team - Testimony Films/BBC Two
• MY LIFE, MY RELIGION Dawn Langan - BBC Learning/BBC Two
• NIGHT ZOOKEEPER Development Team - Wonky Star Ltd
• TEN PIECES Katy Jones, Serena Cross, Sam White - BBC Learning/BBC Music Television/Somethin' Else/BBC Two

LEARNING - SECONDARY

• THE BORIS GAMES Martin Wright, Richard England, Hao Cai - GamelabUK
• EXPLORATION INDIA Dominic Sant, Harvey Woolfe, Nick Price - Evans Woolfe Media/BBC Two
• LLOND CEG Llinos Griffin-Williams, Aled Haydn Jones, Meinir Siencyn - Green Bay Media/S4C
• POETRY: BETWEEN THE LINES Production Team - Somethin' Else/BBC Two

PERFORMER

• GUS BARRY as Mathias in Hetty Feather - CBBC
• HARRY HILL as Professor Branestawnm in The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm - BBC One
• JESSICA RANSOM as Mary Queen of Scots in Horrible Histories - CBBC
• POPPY LEE FRIAR as Eve in EVE - CBBC

PRESCHOOL - ANIMATION

• THE CLANGERS Production Team - Coolabi Productions Limited/Factory Create/CBeebies
• HEY DUGGEE Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe, Janine Murphy - Studio AKA/CBeebies
• LILY'S DRIFTWOOD BAY Production Team - Sixteen south/Nick Jr
• PEPPA PIG Neville Astley, Mark Baker, Phil Davies - Astley Baker Davies/Channel 5

PRESCHOOL - LIVE ACTION

• CBEEBIES ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER Angela Young, Iwan Watson - CBeebies/CBeebies
• MY PET AND ME Rachel Bazeley, Lotte Elwell - CBeebies/Cbeebies
• OLD JACK'S BOAT Paul Shuttleworth, Dermot Canterbury, Bernard Cribbins - CBeebies/CBeebies
• TOPSY AND TIM Production Team - Darrall Macqueen Ltd/Cbeebies

PRESENTER

• ALEXANDER AND CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN Operation Ouch! - CBBC
• BARNEY HARWOOD Blue Peter - CBBC
• IAIN STIRLING The Dog Ate My Homework - CBBC
• SAM NIXON AND MARK RHODES Sam & Mark’s Big Christmas Wind Up - CBBC

SHORT FORM

• CN BUDDY NETWORK Production Team - Turner Broadcasting/Cartoon Network
• BITESIZE SHAKESPEARE - RICHARD III Will Adams, Rory Lowe, Innes Smith - Once Were Farmers/BBC Learning Online
• OOGLIES Cameron Fraser, Neil Jack, Bob Last - Ko Lik Films Two Ltd/CBBC
• POPPIES Simon Partington, Jackie Edwards - CBeebies/CBeebies

WRITER

• GUY BURT Harriet's Army - CBBC
• NEVILLE ASTLEY, MARK BAKER Peppa Pig - Channel 5
• PHIL FORD Wizards vs Aliens - CBBC
• WRITING TEAM Horrible Histories Special - BBC Two

Nominations are correct at the time of going to print. BAFTA reserves the right to make changes to the names listed at any time up until November 22, 2015

Source: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts

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.