The winners have been announced for the British Animation Awards 2024 with Lupus Films’ hand-drawn animated feature film Kensuke’s Kingdom winning in three categories including Best Feature, the Writers Award for Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Best Original Music, for composer Stuart Hancock.
Adapted from the classic adventure story by Michael Morpurgo and directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, the film, about a boy shipwrecked on a seemingly-deserted island, features the voices of Sally Hawkins, Cillian Murphy and Ken Watanabe.
London-based animation studio Lupus Films was also successful in the Best Long Form category. Its Channel 4 hand-drawn animation adapted from Judith Kerr’s classic picture book Mog’s Christmas (dir. Robin Shaw) shared the honours with A Bear Called Wojtek, Iain Gardner’s film about Edinburgh Zoo’s famous brown bear who was adopted by Polish soldiers in WWII.
The Best Short Film category was won by Elizabeth Hobbs for The Debutante, a tale about a spirited young woman who persuades a hyena from London Zoo to take her place at a dinner dance held in her honour.
The ensemble cast of Sky Cinema’s The Amazing Maurice (dir: Toby Genkel, Florian Westermann) won the BAA for Best Voice Performance. The fantasy comedy based on the Terry Pratchett novel about a streetwise cat and his gang of rats, featured the voices of Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, David Thewlis, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton, Hugh Bonneville, David Tennant and Ariyon Bakare.
Great British Bake Off’s promotional trailer for 2023 won in the Best Animation in a Commercial category, while the Best Music Video Award was Late Nights, directed by Golden Wolf for Death by Romy and Adult Swim.
Channel 5 Milkshake!’s animation Odo, about a little owl with a big heart, flew off with two awards. Produced by Belfast-based Sixteen South, the series picked up the awards for Best Children’s Pre-School Series and Best Design. Meanwhile, the Best Children’s Series Award went to The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, directed by Edward Foster and produced by the Illuminated Film Company for ITV. The Best International Animated Series was awarded to Nickelodeon’s The Tiny Chef Show and Factory Create.
Winning the award for Best Use of Sound was Magic Light Pictures’ delightful family animation based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler The Smeds and the Smoos.
A distinctive film about dementia Another Presence won the award for Best Factual. Produced, written and directed by Simon Ball, the film recounted the unique and often curious experiences of people living with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Meanwhile, the Social Good category went to Change the Ending, an impactful film directed by againstallodds about the importance of Alzheimer Research UK’s mission to find a cure for the disease.
In two of the newer BAA categories, the Cutting Edge award, for challenging the status quo, was picked up by Emma Calder for Beware of Trains, while the Wildcard category was won by Jon Dunleavy’s Two Gracious Uncles Smooched to the Beat.
Some of the leading British animation courses were represented in the Best Undergraduate and Best Postgraduate Student films. The winners were Sena Miyazaki’s (Arts University Bournemouth) Cortex for Best Undergraduate Student Film and Tanya J.Scott’s (National Film and Television School) The Wolf of Custer for Best Postgraduate 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 2024 Lamb Award is Malachi James, who was nominated by Blue Zoo.
Two of awards on the night were decided by members of the public. The winners of these were: Netflix’s Dead End – Paranormal Park (dir. Liz Whitaker) voted for by year 4 pupils from St Mary Redcliffe Primary School in Bristol for Children’s Choice Award; and Shackle directed by Ainslie Henderson for The Audience Award.
BAA Director Helen Brunsdon and Producer Kieran Argo said: “As always we have been blown away by the quality of work produced by the British Animation industry over the last couple of years and would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to all the winners.”
The finalists and winners
Best Design
Ms. Marvel – Dir: Ian Spendloff
ODO – Mum – Dir: Piotr Szczepanowicz, Mikolaj Pilchowski WINNER
Puffin Rock and The New Friends – Dir: Jeremy Purcell
Best Use of Sound
Kensuke’s Kingdom – Dir: Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry
The Smeds and The Smoos – Dir: Daniel Snaddon, Samantha Cutler WINNER
The Sound Collector – Harp Strings – Dir: Chris Tichborne
Best Factual Award
Jeremy, my Father – Dir: Miranda Peyton Jones
Something More – Dir: Mary Martins
Another Presence – Dir: Simon Ball WINNER
A Taste For Music – Dir: Jordan Antonowicz-Behnan
Best Voice Performance
Mog’s Christmas – Voice Ensemble, Director Robin Shaw
The Amazing Maurice – Voice Ensemble, Director Toby Genkel, Florian Westermann WINNER
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Voice Ensemble, Director Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy
Best Undergraduate Film
The Moonseeker – Dir: Diana Blázquez Martín, Katherine Galley
hyposoMIAOW – Dir: Yunxin Zou
Cortex – Dir: Sena Miyazaki WINNER
Best Postgraduate Film
Death of The Gods – Dir: Leto Stojanovic Meade
Spring Roll Dream – Dir: Mai Vu
The Wolf of Custer – Dir: Tanya J Scott WINNER
Crab Day – Dir: Ross Stringer
Writers Award
Lloyd of the Flies – Gummy Goes Off – Andrew Barnett Jones and Ciaran Murtagh, Dir: Matthew Walker
Kensuke’s Kingdom – Frank Cottrell-Boyce Dir: Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry WINNER
The Rubbish World of Dave Spud – Olden Days -Writer and Dir: Edward Foster
Dead End: Paranormal Park – 210 The Watcher’s Test – Hamish Steele, Dir: Liz Whittaker
Lamb Award
Beatriz Diosdado Masa – Blue Zoo
Aiesha Penwarden – Skylark Films/Big Squid Ink Ltd.
Malachi James – Blue Zoo WINNER
Best Children’s Pre-School Series
HEY DUGGEE- The Music Video Badge – Dir: Grant Orchard, Sander Jones
The Very Small Creatures (series 2) – Dir: Lucy Izzard
ODO – Mum – Dir: Piotr Szczepanowicz, Mikolaj Pilchowski WINNER
The Adventures of Paddington (series 3) – Dir: Adam Shaw, Chris Drew
Best Children’s Series
Tweedy & Fluff – Dir: Chris Randall
The Sound Collector – Harp Strings – Dir: Chris Tichborne
The Rubbish World of Dave Spud – Moonbreaker – Dir: Edward Foster WINNER
Lloyd of the Flies – Dir: Matt Walker, Jane Davies
Children’s Choice
Dead End: Paranormal Park – Dir: Liz Whitaker WINNER
Supertato – Dir: Dominic Minns
The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe – The Prince and the Valiant Quest – Dir: Eva Lee Wallberg, Christian Boving-Andersen
Lego City No Limits – (episode 6) – Dir: Ben Steer
Cutting Edge
Beware of Trains – Dir: Emma Calder WINNER
Silly Duck Dir” Alec Smith
Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway – Dir: Bram Ttwheam, Finbar Hawkins
The Line Experiments – Dir: Antoine Perez
Best Music Video
Carry You by Ruelle– Dir: Flora Caulton
Tell Me Where To Go by JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown– Dir: Peter Beatty, Joseph Boyle
Late Nights’ Music Video – Dir: DEATHBYROMY & ADULT SWIM WINNER
Wildcard (Awarded to animations of any durations deemed as ‘extraordinary’
The Beatles Vs The Stones – Dir: Andrew Kelleher (Dog&Rabbit)
Two Gracious Uncles Smooched To The Beat – Dir: Jon Dunleavy WINNER
Hairy Houdini – Dir: Trevor Hardy
Best Original Music
Mog’s Christmas – Composer David Arnold Dir: Robin Shaw
Tweedy & Fluff – Composers Beth Porter and Ben Plea Dir: Chris Randall
Kensuke’s Kingdom – Composer Stuart Hancock Dir: Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry WINNER
Best Animation in a Commercial
Blown Away – Dir: Sarah McDonald
Channel 4: The Great British Bake Off 2023 Official Trailer – Dir: JuanPe Arroyo WINNER
The Lords of Water – Dir: Golden Wolf
Social Good Award
Alzheimer’s Research UK ‘Change The Ending – againstallodds WINNER
Ask me how I am – Dir: Zan Barberton, Joseph Clark
Inner Polar Bear – Dir: Gerald Conn
Best International Animated Series
Captain Fall – Dir: Adam Parton, Peter Merryman
Milo – Dir: Chris Capstick
The Tiny Chef Show (Episode Pancakes) – Dir: Rachel Larsen, Chris Tichborne WINNER
Supa Team 4
Best Long Form Animation
A Bear Named Wojtek – Dir: Iain Gardner WINNER
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse – Dir: Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy
Peter and the Wolf – Dir: Stephen McNally, Elliot Dear
Mog’s Christmas – Dir: Robin Shaw WINNER
Best Feature Film
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – Dir: Sam Fell
A Cat Called Dom – Dir: Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson
Kensuke’s Kingdom – Dir: Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry WINNER
Puffin Rock and The New Friends – Dir: Jeremy Purcell
The Amazing Maurice – Dir: Toby Genkel, Florian Westermann
Best Short Form
Christopher at Sea – Dir: Tom CJ Brown
The Debutante – Dir: Elizabeth Hobbs WINNER
All Gucci My Broski – Dir: Harry Plowden
Jon Creamer
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