British Animation Awards Finalists Revealed

LONDON: The finalists have been unveiled for the 2016 British Animation Awards (BAA), which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

This year’s finalists include actors Martin Freeman (Stick Man) and Chris O’Dowd (Puffin Rock), who are up for a BAA in the Best Voice Performance category. The pair face off against William Vanderpuye for his voice performance in Rastamouse. In the Best Long Form category, Magic Light Pictures’s Stick Man takes on Aardman Animation’s Shaun The Sheep: The Movie and Fettle Animation’s BBC Learning film Children of the Holocaust.

Coolabi Productions and Factory’s The Clangers is up for Best Preschool Series, alongside Sky AKA’s Hey Duggee and Sixteen South’s Lily’s Driftwood Bay. The Best Children’s Series category features Coolabi Productions and Factory’s Scream Street, Three Stones Media/The Rastamous Company’s Rastamouse and Turner Broadcasting’s The Amazing Adventures of Gumball.

Sainsbury’s Mog The Cat is up for Best Use of Animation in a Commercial, as is Anchor Butter’s Little Elephants and the Mariposa sofa family. The Best Music Video category includes Benjamin Scheuer: Cookie-tin Bango, James: Moving On and Armaro and Walden’s Joyride. Contenders for Best Short Film include Daniel Gray and Tom Brown’s Teeth, Robert Bradbrook’s Dead Air and Kristian Andrews’s Let’s Play Nomad X.

Jayne Pilling, BAA’s director, noted: “We are incredibly excited to be putting on this wonderful celebration of British animation in the 20th year since the British Animation Awards began. We’ve had some fantastic winners over the years but the calibre of this year’s finalists prove that the animation industry is in better health than ever!”

The 2016 British Animation Awards will take place at London’s Southbank on March 10.