2024 British Animation Awards Finalists Announced

The British Animation Awards (BAA) 2024 finalists were announced today, recognizing the best in U.K. animation across a variety of categories. Now in its 28th year, the BAA will hold this year’s ceremony at London’s BFI Southbank on March 7.

The finalists are as follows:

Best Feature Film

• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (dir: Sam Fell) produced by Aardman for Netflix
• A Cat Called Dom - Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson
• Kensuke’s Kingdom (dir: Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry) – Lupus Film
• Puffin Rock and the New Friends (dir: Jeremy Purcell) produced by Cartoon Saloon and Dog Ear for Netflix
• The Amazing Maurice (dir: Toby Genkel, Florian Westermann) - Sky Cinema

Best Voice Performance

• Mog’s Christmas - Channel 4
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse - Apple Studios
• The Amazing Maurice - Sky Cinema’s

Best Long Form

• A Bear Named Wojtek (dir. Iain Gardner)
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (dir. Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy)
• Peter and the Wolf (dir. Stephen McNally, Elliot Dear)
• Mog’s Christmas (dir.  Robin Shaw).

Best Short Film

• Christopher at Sea by Tom C J Brown
• The Debutante by Elizabeth Hobbs
• All Gucci My Broski by Harry Plowden.

Best Children’s Series

• The Sound Collector: “Harp Strings”
• The Rubbish World of Dave Spud: “Moonbreaker”
• Lloyd of the Flies
• Tweedy and Fluff

Best Animation in a Commercial

• Blown Away for Admiral
• The Great British Bake Off Official Trailer for Channel 4
• The Lords of Water for The Lords of Water.

Best Music Video

• Carry You for Ruelle
• Tell Me Where to Go for JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown
• Late Nights for DeathbyRomy/Adult Swim are competing for Best Music Video.

Best Children’s Pre-School

• Hey Duggee
• The Adventures of Paddington
• The Very Small Creatures
• Odo 

Best International Animated Series

• Captain Fall
•  Milo
• The Tiny Chef Show
• Supa Team 4. 

Best Factual Award 

• Jeremy, My Father by Miranda Peyton Jones
• Something More by Mary Martins
• Another Presence by Simon Ball
• A Taste for Music by Jordan Antonowicz-Behnan

Wildcard

• The Beatles Vs The Stones (Andrew Kelleher)
• Two Gracious Uncles Smooched to the Beat (Jon Dunleavy)
• Hairy Houdini (Trevor Hardy).

Best Undergraduate and Best Postgraduate Student Film categories include nominees from:

• Arts University Bournemouth
• University of the Arts London
• National Film & Television School 

The Social Good Award

• Change the Ending directed by againstallodds
• Ask Me How I Am by Zan Barberton and Joseph Clark
• Inner Polar Bear by Gerald Conn.

Best Original Music

• Stuart Hancock for Kensuke’s Kingdom
• Beth Porter and Ben Please for Tweedy & Fluff
• David Arnold for Mog’s Christmas

Writer’s Award

• Andrew Barnett Jones and Ciaran Murtagh for Lloyd of the Flies: “Gummy Goes Off”
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce for Kensuke’s Kingdom
• Edward Foster for The Rubbish World of Dave Spud: “Olden Days”
• Hamish Steele for Dead End: Paranormal Park: “210 The Watcher’s Test”

Best Design

• Ms Marvel
• Odo
• Puffin Rock and the New Friends

Best Use of Sound

• Kensuke’s Kingdom
•  The Smeds and the Smoos
• The Sound Collector: “Harp Strings”

Cutting Edge Award

• Beware of Trains by Emma Calder
• Silly Duck by Alec Smith
• Wallace & Gromit in the Grand Getaway - Bram Ttwheam and Finbar Hawkins
• The Line Experiments by Antoine Perez.

Lamb Award - recognizes rising stars in any field of animation or VFX production

• Nominated by established studios, this year the nominees include young professionals from Blue Zoo and Skylark Films/Big Squid Ink

The Short Film Audience Award - voted for by 14 screening partners and their U.K. audiences.

Children’s Choice Award - decided by students at St. Mary Redcliffe Primary School in Bristol from a shortlist including:

• Dead End: Paranormal Park
• Supertato
• The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe: “The Prince and the Valiant Quest”
• Lego City: “No Limits” (episode 6).

BAA director Helen Brunsdon and producer Kieran Argo said, “Despite a myriad of changes and challenges facing the animation industry in the UK over the last couple of years, the sector remains thriving and productive. The quality and quantity of the work submitted to the BAAs is evidence of the dedication and creative ingenuity of all who work in animation and is a great indication of how UK animation continues to punch above its bodyweight on the world stage.”

Source: British Animation Awards

Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.