Peppa Pig, Amazing World of Gumball Among British Animation Award Winners

LONDON: The biennial British Animation Awards (BAA), which honor the finest achievements in animation produced in the country over the last two years, recognized such shows as The Amazing World of Gumball and Peppa Pig.

The awards were hosted by comedian Aisling Bea. The event honored actress Morwenna Banks with the BAA for Best Vocal Performance in Astley Baker Davies’ Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom. Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball was the big winner of the night, picking up two awards, for Best Children’s Series and the children’s jury judged Children’s Choice Award.
 
Also in the children’s categories, Astley Baker Davies won the Best Pre-School series for Peppa Pig: Mr Bull in a China Shop. Darrall Macqueen picked up the Best Mixed Media children’s series for the CBeebies show Baby Jake: Popping Peas. Magic Light Pictures' Room on the Broom picked up the BAA in the Long Form category.

The Best Music Video category was won by Andrew Thomas Huang for his film for Atoms of Peace’s track Before Your Very Eyes.

The Best Short Film award went to Mikey Please for Marilyn Myller, while the 2014 Student Award was won by Antonio Busto Algarin for The Day I Killed My Best Friend. Ainslie Henderson won the Student Excellence Award for his film I Am Tom Moody.

In the commercial categories, Mindfull, by Shay Hamias and Will Barras, picked up the best APA 2D Commercial Award, while Talk Talk: Model Britain, directed by Daniel Kleinman, was voted the APA Best 3D Commercial. RSPB: Vote for Nature directed by Morgan Powell and Neil Kidney for Seed Animation was awarded the statue for Best Commissioned Film.

Computer graphics were also rewarded with Peter Candeland at Passion Films picking up the Best Film/TV Graphics for BBC Olympics: Stadium UK, and Animate Projects and Lupus Films winning the Best Motion Graphics award for the Channel 4 film Apocalypse Rhyme directed by Oliver Harrison.

In the Public Choice categories, voted for by the public at 14 special screenings across the country, Talk Talk: Model Britain picked up its second award of the night when it tied with WWF: We Don’t Farm Like This, directed by againstallodds, for Favourite Commercial. Peter Baynton’s animation of Benjamin Scheuer’s The Lion won the Favourite Music Video, while Car Park and Buy Buy Baby, by Ant Blades at Birdbox Studios and Gervais Merryweather NFTS, respectively, shared the Favourite Film honor.

In the BAA Sting Competition, animators were asked to create a special sting for the awards, and the winners were picked by a jury. The winners were: Katie Single from University of the Creative Arts (UCA) Farnham and Jack David Evans from the University of South Wales for the Student Category and Anthony Farquhar Smith from Th1ng for the Professional Category.

BAA director Jayne Pilling said: “We never ceased to be amazed by the astonishing strength and depth of the animation industry in this country and 2014 is no different. We would like to congratulate all our worthy winners for once again pushing the boundaries of art, technology and innovation.”