Tim Burton’s British animated film Corpse Bride won
the Best European Animated Feature at this year’s British Animation
Awards hosted by the comedian Jeremy Hardy and held at the Shaw Theatre
in London. Aardman’s BBC-3 special Angry Kid: Who Do You Think
You Are walked off with the Best TV Special award and Hat
Trick and Decode’s Bromwell High: Baby Boom won the
Best Comedy Award.
Powerhouse animation studio Passion Pictures took four awards. The
public have clearly taken a shine to their films as they notched up two
Public Choice Awards, jointly winning Favourite Film with Gaelle
Dennis’ "City Paradise" and gaining the Favourite Music Video for
Gorillaz: Feel Good Inc. They also walked away with Best Commercial:
Craft for Mayfly for "Vodafone," and the Award for Best Music Video,
with SSR’s "Subtle: Swan Meat."
Commercial directors Smith & Foulkes from Nexus studios also scored
a hat trick they won the Award for Best Commercial: Direction for their
Honda ‘Grrr’ campaign picked up a BAA for Best Film/TV Graphics for
Motorola Classics and gained the Public Choice Award for Favourite Ad
for the Observer Monthly Music Magazine: From ABBA to Zappa.
London-based animator Run Wrake won two Awards for
Rabbit: the Best Film at the Cutting Edge and the
Best Short Film.
The Public Choice Awards are a vital part of the ceremony and are the
only awards to be voted for by members of the public, 20 screenings
were held in independent cinemas across the country with the audience
voting for their favourites.
Public Choice Favourite Short Film: A joint winner between
City Paradise by Gaelle Dennis (Passion Pictures) as
stated above shared with Who I am and What I Want by
Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley (Slinky Pictures)
Public Choice Favourite Music Video: "Gorillaz: Feel Good Inc." by
Jamie Hewitt and Pete Candeland (Passion Pictures for EMI Records)
Public Choice Favourite Ad: As stated above Smith and Foulkes for the Observer Monthly Music campaign
Newcomers Blue Zoo productions gained two awards, their series
Those Scurvy Rascals: Pants Odyssey took the Best
Children’s Series and walked off with the Children’s Choice Award.
Peppa Pig: Mummy Pig at Work won Best Children’s
Pre-School Series and Koala Brothers ‘ Outback Christmas Special won
the Writers Award.
Matthew Walker took home the Best Student Film for his University of
Wales, Newport graduation film Astronauts.
“This was a sparkling year for animation with some fierce competition,”
said BAA director Jayne Pilling. “We would like to congratulate the
winners and all those who were nominated for making our job so
incredibly difficult!”
In place of a statuette, all the winners of this year’s BAAs took home
a unique artwork created specially for the occasion by a range of
leading international and UK animation artists. In recognition of the
awards’ acronym, the artworks had feature one or more sheep, with the
option for a visual reference to the UK and/or animation.
The British Animation Awards is the only ceremony in Britain to
recognise all forms of animation. This is the tenth anniversary of the
awards which reward the work of students and established animators,
feature and short films, animated graphics for film and television,
children’s and adult television series and specials, music videos and
commercials.