Tag: BAAs

Here are all the wonderful winners of 2024. Congratulations to all!

20 March 2024. Now the dust has settled, the BAA team just want to say one big thank you to everyone involved in the BAAs this year. The animation community throughout the UK has so much to be proud about….we couldn’t have done it without you!

The BAAs would also like to thank the amazing volunteers who gave up so much of their time and worked hard making the night the success that it was, thank you: Christopher Wright, Sophie Torry Cook, Isabella Newbold, Tom Lynas, Lucy Highet, Martha Williams, Hannah Lee Miller, Ruby Argo, Elena Garcia Sirvent, Alfie Williams, Yusuf Mohammed Uddin, Oliver Gallagher, Louis Chevis.

Congratulations again to all nominees, winners and everyone who supported and helped us. Here’s to 2026…..please continue to support the keeper of the rainbow cape! Best wishes (l-r) Ellys, Helen, Kieran, Harriet xxx

Hello! Long time, no bleat!

We thought that we’d update you just before the summer on everything that we’ve been up to this year so far, and everything that is yet to come!

From the beginning of June, the BAA’s welcomed two new members to the team, Ellys and Erykah! Ellys is working with the BAA’s as Events Administrator and Erykah is focusing on Marketing and Communications! 

Ellys is the Events Manager and Programmer for Cardiff Animation Festival and has helped to run five editions of the festival, including the first touring programme across Wales in 2022/23. Ellys also organises monthly screenings for Cardiff Animation Nights, a free animation event in Cardiff and online. Ellys is looking forward to a new challenge with joining the BAA team and is excited for the 2024 edition!

Erykah has a background in Media and Communications and is graduating from Cardiff University this month! She has worked with a wide range of companies across Cardiff over the last two years, gaining experience in lots of creative sectors, from Theatre to Film, and lots in between. She’s most excited to get the BAA’s back on everyone’s radar in the lead up to the 2024 awards!

We have now announced the date for the 2024 BAAs as the 7th of March 2024, so make sure you mark your diaries in preparation for a night of animation celebration.

We also have a new update of the BAA logo ready for 2024, so watch out for any new content with the yellow sheep on it! 

We’ve also recently shared with you that three categories are already open for submissions! These are:

• Best Postgraduate Film Award
• Best Undergraduate Film Award
• Best Short Film Award

All three categories are FREE to enter on FilmFreeway via this link: https://filmfreeway.com/BritishAnimationAwards 

Make sure that you read all of the T&C’s and are aware of the deadline – 7pm on 29th September 2023!

Remaining Categories of the BAAs to open in September – 

The twenty remaining categories will be opening in September.

We will remind you again closer to the time, and give you all of the details on how to submit, and when the deadline is.

Make sure that you follow us on social media for the latest news.

Instagram/Facebook/Threads – @britishanimationawards  Twitter – @baawards  

Manchester Animation Festival is now Academy Award Qualifying Festival –

Our friends over at Manchester Animation Festival (MAF) have shared the exciting news that they are now an official Academy Award® Qualifying Festival! This means that any recipient of their Short Film Award, will be eligible for consideration in the Short Films competition of the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run. This is amazing news for MAF, and for the Animation community, we’re super excited for everyone! 

Cardiff Animation Nights are open for submissions – 

For the first time ever, filmmakers can now submit their films to Cardiff Animation Nights! You can submit animated films of any genre and up to 20 minutes in length through FilmFreeway. Each month a programme of short films will be selected to be screened either online or in-person.  All films screened in 2023 will be eligible for the Cardiff Animation Nights 2023 awards in December, with a winning film to be selected by a jury of industry professionals! To find out more and to submit your film head to cardiffanimation.com/can

British Animation Awards sponsor, the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund, gives us an insight into the invaluable work that they do…

Developing and sustaining a world class animation workforce is the mission of the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund. Much like the British Animation Awards, we strive to support the talent working hard in our industry to make exceptional animated productions.

To give you some background, less than 10 years ago our industry was in sharp decline, faced with international competition from countries who could offer substantial tax breaks making their production budgets more attractive to the public service broadcasters in the UK. Thanks to research and lobbying by Animation UK, the Animation Tax Relief was launched in 2013 and since this time, the industry has doubled in size. To meet the demands of the production boom, the industry acknowledged the need to skill-up the workforce and Creative Skillset (predecessor to ScreenSkills) led the campaign for the formation of the Animation Skills Fund. 

Productions claiming the tax relief, such as the BAA-nominated The Tiger Who Came to Tea, pay a small percentage of their budget into the fund. This contribution enables us to invest in the skills development of the animation workforce at all levels. The fund’s spending is guided by a council made up of industry leaders from across the country as we believe that, through united action, we can build a stronger, highly skilled and diverse workforce.

Initiatives that we have supported to develop professionals’ careers include Animated Women UK’s (AWUK) Helen North Achieve Programme, which has had a demonstrable impact on the careers of the 72 women who have participated to date. We are continuing to support this work and assist AWUK in extending the offer to reach more people nationwide. In recognition of the storyboarding skills gap, we will be supporting Lupus Films to upskill storyboard artists to improve their drawing and visual storytelling skills. We aim to roll this out further across the UK to other studios, and with further job roles, through the support of studios coming together to deliver this programme at scale.

We aim to inspire the next generation to consider careers in animation through a variety of projects. We provide careers information online, including recently producing a lesson plan aimed at eight to 11 year-olds that uses assets from Lupus Films’ The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Through our collaboration with Into Film on producing and distributing the resource, it has the potential to reach 20,000+ primary schools across the UK. And for older students we are supporting 3Dami and the NextGen Skills Academy to train young people nationwide to run Blender workshops which they in turn teach to more than 1,500 young people at schools’ clubs whilst encouraging them to consider careers in animation.

Discussions are under way about other initiatives designed to address skills gaps and create a more inclusive industry, include Toon Boom software training, up-skilling layout artists, production coordinator and production manager training, and a programme to enable people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to step up in their careers to more senior levels.

With further investment from the industry we will be able to support more talent, so visit screenskills.com/industry/animation for information on how you can help shape the future of the industry.

https://www.screenskills.com/industry/animation