Winners Revealed for YAY UK Animation Awards 2024

The winners of the Young Animator of the Year (YAY) UK Animation Awards competition, which aims to discover, nurture and celebrate emerging animation talent between the ages of 11 and 18, have been unveiled.

Ptolemy Torney (15) won in the stop-motion animation category for ages 15 to 18, while James Moody-Jones (12) was awarded for stop-motion animation in the 11-to-14 group. Morgan Vincent (17) won the top prize for 3D animation in the 15-to-18 category. For 2D animation, Dixie O’Malley (18) took the top prize for the 15-to-18 group, and Vedha Athmanathan (14) won for the 11-to-14 cohort.

The winning films were screened at the tenth Manchester Animation Festival. Winners were selected by a panel of industry professionals coming from Aardman, Lupus Films and more.

The winners will get exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of Blue Zoo in London and Aardman in Bristol.

The competition has previously launched the careers of numerous animators, with past winners going on to work at animation and VFX houses like Blue Zoo and The Mill.

Young Animator of the Year is an initiative supported by Access:VFX and Blue Zoo Animation Studio.