The Black Dog's Progress, Stephen Irwin

April 8th saw the British Animation Awards ceremony take place at BFI Southbank. Notable mentions go to Stephen Irwin whose film The Black Dog’s Progress received two awards, including Best Short Film; Philip Hunt from Studio AKA was awarded Best Animated Special for his film, Lost & Found; The Secret of Kells, directed by Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey, took the European Animated Feature; and Aardman Animations walked away with the awards for the Children’s Choice and Best Children’s Series categories.

The full list of British Animation Awards winners:
Best Student Film: Yellow Belly End directed by Philip Bacon, produced at National Film & Television School
Best Pre-School Series: Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom: Big Bad Barry directed by Neville Astley & Mark Baker, produced by Astley Baker Davies/E1 Kids for Nick Jr
Best Music Video: Flogging Molly: Float directed by Karni & Saul, produced by Rokkit for Sideone Dummy
Best Children’s Series: Shaun the Sheep: Ewe’ve Been Framed directed by Richard Webber, series director Chris Sadler, produced by Aardman Animations for BBC & WDR
Best Film/TV Graphics: Holland Animation Film Festival Title Sequence: Robin directed by Lee Wilson Wolfe & Pete Bishop, produced by The Shop
Applied Animation: The Violent Highway, Animation Director Tony Comley, produced by Sherbet for BBC
Best Sound Track: The Black Dog’s Progress, Music: Sorenious Bonk, produced for Animate Projects
Best Animated Special: Lost & Found, directed by Phillip Hunt, produced by Studio AKA
New Media: Best Commissioned Animation: Harmonix: The Beatles Rock Band Intro, directed by Pete Candeland, produced by Passion Pictures
Best Commercial: Craft: Audi Q5: Unboxed, directed by Russell Brooke & Aaron Duffy, produced by Passion Pictures for BBH, London
Children’s Choice: Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf & Death, directed by Nick Park, produced by Aardman Animations
Best Commercial: Director: Audi Q5: Unboxed, directed by Russell Brooke & Aaron Duffy, produced by Passion Pictures for BBH, London
Best Short Film: The Black Dog’s Progress, directed by Stephen Irwin, produced for Animate Projects
European Animated Feature: The Secret of Kells, directed by Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey, A Les Armateurs/ Vivi Film/ Cartoon Sal’oon/ France 2 Cinéma Co-Production
Public Choice: Favourite Music Video: Rex the Dog: Bubblicious, directed by Geoffroy de Crecy, produced by Partizan for Cooperative Music
Public Choice: Favourite Advert: Cadburys Creme Egg: Mousetrap, directed by Chris Cairns, produced by Partizan for Publicis, London
Public Choice: Favourite Film: This Way Up, directed by Smith & Foulkes, produced by Nexus Productions

Christine Roche's 2008 BAA artwork

Submission time for the bi-yearly British Animation Awards is upon us. BAA  covers all aspects of the UK animation scene, from student work to commercials, children’s entertainment, short and experimental art films, music videos and works which incorporate new technologies. BAA – whose logo, wittily enough, is a branded cartoon sheep’s rump – also present each award winner with a sheep-based artwork by ‘an inspirational fellow artist-animator’ – what more incentive to apply could an artist-animator need? The deadline for students to submit is October 30 2009 – and there’s no entry fee. For everyone else, it’s 30 November.

More details (and a gallery of past ovine artworks) are available  here.

Joanna Quinn, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties (2006)

Barbican Film celebrates International Animation Day with a special focus on the work of the multi-award-winning, internationally acclaimed British animator Joanna Quinn on 28 October.

Joanna’s work explores the politics of gender and the eccentricities of the human body through brilliant characterisation, superb draughtsmanship and wonderful animation technique. The screening will include Joanna’s 1987 debut film Girls Night Out, winner of 3 awards at the Annecy Film Festival, and follow-ups Body Beautiful (1990) and the multi-award-winning Dreams & Desires: Family Ties (2006). Other works include Elles (1992) a celebration of Toulouse Lautrec, the Oscar nominated Wife of Bath (1998), and her masterpiece Britannia (1993), a savage indictment of British Imperialism.

Joanna will discuss her films and upcoming projects with Jayne Pilling, Director of the British Animation Awards.

Find out more and book tickets via the Barbican website.

To win two tickets to see Joanna Quinn at the Barbican on 28 October, answer the following question: what was the name of Joanna Quinn’s film that won a Public Choice Award at the 2008 British Animation Awards? To be in with a chance to win email your answer to engine@animateprojects.org by 21 October, one winner will then be picked at random.