British Animation Awards Crowns 2024 Winners

The British Animation Awards have unveiled the winners for 2024, with the hand-drawn title Kensuke’s Kingdom sweeping three categories.

From Lupus Films, Kensuke’s Kingdom tells the story of a boy who is shipwrecked on a seemingly deserted island. The film took the win for best feature, the writer’s award for Frank Cottrell-Boyce and the best original music award for composer Stuart Hancock.

Lupus Films was also successful in the best long-form category, as Mog’s Christmas shared the honors with A Bear Called Wojtek. The best short film category, meanwhile, was won by The Debutante.

The Amazing Maurice took the award for best voice performance, having 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 the best animation in a commercial category, while Late Nights snagged the best music video award.

Odo, about a little owl with a big heart, picked up the awards for best children’s preschool series and best design. Meanwhile, the best children’s series award went to The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, and the best international animated series was The Tiny Chef Show.

The Smeds and the Smoos won the award for best use of sound. Another Presence, about dementia, won best factual, while the social good award went to Change the Ending, which focused on Alzheimer’s research.

In newer award categories, the cutting edge win went to Beware of Trains, while the wildcard award was taken by Two Gracious Uncles Smooched to the Beat.

Sena Miyazaki’s (Arts University Bournemouth) Cortex picked up the win for best undergraduate student film. Best postgraduate student film was Tanya J.Scott’s (National Film and Television School) The Wolf of Custer. The lamb award, which bridges the gap between current categories which recognize student achievements and general best-in-class awards, was awarded to Malachi James.

Two of awards on the night were decided by members of the public. The winners of these were Dead End—Paranormal Park for the children’s choice award and Shackle for the audience award.

The awards themselves are unique, edition-numbered linocut/relief prints featuring some of the best-loved animation characters of the last 100 years. They were created by animator and artist Derek Hayes.

Helen Brunsdon, director of the British Animation Awards, and Kieran Argo, producer, 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.”