Winners Announced for the Children’s BAFTAs

LONDON, November 26: At a
Gala held last night at the London Hilton, winners were unveiled for the
British Academy Children’s Awards, with the BBC’s CBBC and CBeebies notching
ten trophies.

The annual Awards are
voted on by BAFTA members, including filmmakers, program makers and game
developers. The Academy also gave children a vote with the BAFTA Kids’ Vote in
association with Electronic Arts, where ten nominated films were selected from
the year’s top box office family-oriented pictures, and children voted for
their favorite film. The Simpsons Movie beat out contenders such as Spider-Man 3 and Transformers.

This year’s Awards also
introduced two new categories: break-through talent and children’s video game,
with Charles Martin, the director of My Life As A Popat, and Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party for PS2 winning in the categories respectively. In
addition, BAFTA had partnered with CBBC and BBC Learning for a new filmmaking
initiative launched in April that is aimed at 7-to-14-year-olds, CBBC Me and My
Movie. The winner of the competition was 14-year-old Rosalind Peters for her
film The Unwelcome Stranger.

The BBC children’s team
took home ten awards, with CBeebies, headed by creative director Michael
Carrington, winning channel of the year. CBeebies also secured a win with its
series In The Night Garden picking
up the preschool live action award. CBeebies’ Charlie And Lola won two trophies, with one for preschool animation
and the other going to Bridget Hurst for best writer. CBBC, helmed by creative
director Anne Gilchrist, received a number of awards, including best drama for That
Summer Day, best factual for Newsround’s
The Wrong Trainers, best presenter
to Barney Harwood and best entertainment for The Slammer. BBC Worldwide’s The Secret Show also received two trophies: the interactive award
and the animation award.

In other categories, Happy
Feet, from Kingdom Pictures and
Warner Bros. in the U.K., claimed an award for best feature film, while Aardman
won for independent production company of the year.

Richard Deverell, the
controller for BBC Children's, said: "I'm thrilled that the
distinctiveness, creativity and originality of our programs have been
acknowledged by these awards. At a time when people are concerned about
children's television, this is a ringing endorsement for the success of BBC
Children's investment in this sector."

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski