The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announces the winners of Sunday’s British Academy Children’s Awards, celebrating the very best in children’s film, television, games and online media of the past year, and the talent behind their successes.
The ceremony was hosted by Barney Harwood at the London Hilton on Park Lane, and presenters included Eddie Izzard, Alesha Dixon, Sir David Jason, Tom and Dougie from McFly, Olympic gold medallists Heather Stanning and Alex Gregory, Tyger Drew Honey, Caitlin Moran, X Factor’s Kye Sones and Jade Ellis, Jedward and American film director John Landis.
Justin Fletcher won the third BAFTA of his career to become the most awarded children’s presenter yet, triumphing once again in the Presenter category for Something Special. On a memorable night for the presenter, Fletcher saw another of his programs, Justin’s House, beating the competition in the Pre-School Live Action category.
Completing hat-tricks of wins this year were Peppa Pig, repeating its success at last year’s Children’s Awards by picking up the Pre-School Animation award and bringing its overall tally in that category to three, and the ever-popular Horrible Histories, which for the third consecutive year won the BAFTA for Comedy.
The Amazing World of Gumball enjoyed a double-BAFTA win on the night, overcoming stiff competition in the Animation and Writer categories to take home the two awards.
In the Feature Film category, Arthur Christmas, Hugo and The Muppets were all beaten to the Award by The Hunger Games, the critically acclaimed box-office smash adapted from the best-selling novels.
Celebrating the first BAFTA win of his career was 14 year-old rapper and actor Khalil Madovi, who triumphed in the Performer category for his role as Josh Carter in 4 O’Clock Club. Emerging British talent continued to be recognized throughout the night with Friday Download, the show fronted by a team of young stars, which collected the BAFTA for Entertainment.
The culmination of this year’s BAFTA Young Game Designers competition saw two Awards presented on the night. 15 year-old Charlie Hutton-Pattemore from Taunton in Somerset took home the Game Concept Award for his game Vacuum Panic (aka Suck It Up), and the inaugural Game-making Award presented by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was won by 13 year-old Christopher Purdy from Horsham in West Sussex for his game Smiley Dodgems. Charlie’s and Christopher’s entries were chosen from hundreds from across the UK by a jury of games industry professionals, educationalists and celebrity gamers, and they will now work on their games with experts from the University of Abertay Dundee, and will visit SCE London Studio, makers of the BAFTA Award-winning EyeToy and SingStar franchises.
A record-breaking number of votes were received in this year’s BAFTA Kids’ Vote. 7-14 year-olds cast over half a million votes -- 593,674 -- and had their say across a whole range of entertainment media in a nationwide poll to choose their favorite film, television program, website and video game. The winners in the four categories were: The Smurfs (Feature Film); Good Luck Charlie (Television); Temple Run (Video Game); Bin Weevils (Website). The Kids’ Vote website -- www.baftakidsvote.org -- remains a year-round destination for the under 14s, with quizzes, games, interviews, and reports from the Awards.
In recognition of an outstanding creative contribution to the industry, the Special Award was presented to Brian Cosgrove, co-founder of Cosgrove Hall and best known for creating DangerMouse, The BFG, Wind in the Willows, Jamie And The Magic Torch and Count Duckula by celebrated actor, life-long friend and colleague Sir David Jason.
On hearing he was selected to receive the Award, Cosgrove said: “After 40 years of making children’s programs, it is an honor and a privilege to be receiving this Special Award from BAFTA… Hopefully, via the programs we made, we brought pleasure to many generations of viewers.”
Other successes on the night included CBBC winning the prestigious Channel of the Year award; SpongeBob SquarePants’ second win in the International category; Roy winning the BAFTA for Drama; My Life: Me, My Dad and His Kidney for Factual; Nightmare High for Interactive; Seeking Refuge for Learning – Primary; L8R Youngers 2 for Learning – Secondary; Share A Story 2011 for Short Form; and Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure for Video Game. Blue-Zoo Productions, the company whose credits include Tree Fu Tom, Olive The Ostrich, Those Scurvy Rascals and Alphablocks, picked up its first BAFTA for Independent Production Company.
Exclusive red carpet highlights, backstage interviews with the winners, ceremony highlights and photography will be published after the ceremony on www.bafta.org/awards/childrens and www.baftakidsvote.org .
The British Academy Children’s Awards represent all aspects of children’s entertainment: Animation, Channel of the Year, Comedy, Drama, Entertainment, Factual, Feature Film, Independent Production Company, Interactive, International, Learning–Primary, Learning–Secondary, Performer, Pre-school Animation, Pre-school Live Action, Presenter, Short Form, Video Game and Writer.
Source: BAFTA
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.
