British Animation Awards 2016 – A Pageantry of Prizes!
The British Animation Awards return for their 20th anniversary year tonight at the South Bank in London where the past two years of UK animation will be celebrated.
Now, you’d be wrong in thinking that the recipients of a British Animation Award are set to receive a lump of engraved plastic or the same gold plated statute, oh no! The awards handed out on the evening are crafted by animation’s greatest artisans with no two ever alike. Its an evening where the awards themselves are just as much of a focus as the films that are been awarded and gather some much deserved attention. You might find yourself inspired by Erica Russell’s piece, get the desire to pick up some Airfix from Michael Schlingmann’s cheeky parody or just be left wondering “how did Daniel Greaves get that sheep into that bottle?”
The kind folks at the British Animation Awards have shared the awards with us ahead of tonights ceremony with introductions to some of the artists who have crafted the coveted prizes.
Daniel Greaves: is a multi-award winning filmmaker (including an Oscar for his debut short, Manipulation) whose credits include the TV special Flatworld, and the short films Little Things. Over the years he has created some outstanding BAA prizes – as well as winning some! His latest short Mr Plastimime features in BAA’s 2016 Public Choice programmes
Erica Russell: is an animator/director who for many years worked in commercials. She is best known for personal short films, the dance/body film trilogy: Feet of Song, Oscar-nominated Triangle, and Soma, and her unusual way of working with the musicians on the soundtracks for her films.
Mark Burgess: children’s book author and illustrator who works solo (Mutiny at Crossbones Bay) or in collaboration (Where Teddy Bears Come From – illustrations in the style of E H Shepard for the first authorised sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood). He also works as a computer programmer, and designs special warm places for his cat to sleep.
An Vrombaut: writer, illustrator and filmmaker, scored an immediate hit with her student film Little Wolf, and has since enjoyed a successful international career in childrens’ books and TV series (64 Zoo Lane)- and still continues to make short films.
Hugh Turvey: a British artist, photographer and experimentalist who works primarily with X-ray technology. His work fuses art and science, graphic design and pure photography and has been widely exhibited. He has collaborated on architectural projects all over the world, and is also a pioneering creative practitioner for better healthcare environments
Butch Hartman: American director, producer, illustrator and voice actor, (he voices many of the characters in Family Guy). Butch is also an animator and creator of the Emmy-winning animated series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy
Gary Andrews is a creative of many parts: an animation director, character designer, performer and illustrator, working in both traditional animation and with new technologies.
Antonio Jesus Busto Algarin (Busto for short) is a Spanish animator/director. His Middlesex undergraduate film The Day I Killed My Best Friend won BAA 2014’s Best Student Film, beating all the post-grad films, as well as several other awards. His BAA design also doubles up as an animation-referencing lamp!
Tomm Moore: Producer and director, co-founder of Ireland’s innovative animation studio Cartoon Salon, who have produced short films, TV series and the internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning feature films The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, (both Oscar-nominated). A previous BAA winner (Best European Feature Film), the prize he’s created for BAA 2016 is a truly ‘limited edition’ artwork – a commemorative ceramic plate he designed and had individually fired, with help from his wife, the ceramicist Liselott Olofsson.
David Melling: highly prolific author-illustrator (c. 60 books, of which he wrote AND illustrated 15) whose debut children’s book The Kiss That Missed, was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway award in 2002. His Hugless Douglas book series is currently in development as an animated TV series.
Michael Schlingmann: animator/director, polymath, and just about everyone-in-animation’s favourite person – and now 3 times ‘official baa artist’. He draws 24 frames every second of the day and keeps chickens and bees, has worked for most major studios in London and some overseas. Proud owner of a Moebius award, two Promax world class awards, and a grand Prix from the Holland Animation festival.
Oliver Harrison: award-winning animation director/filmmaker and designer, and typographer extraordinaire, winner of a BAA Best Motion-Graphics Award in 2014 for Apocalypse Rhyme, credits include near the feature-length The Fallen World, Love is All, Spirit of Place, Time, Amore Baciami.
Mic Graves: an Oscar nominated, multi BAFTA winning director with credits including many commercials and idents for Studio Aka, three series of Monkey Dust for Talkback Thames and The Amazing World of Gumball for Cartoon Network, (recent Children’s BAFTA winner for best animation, the sixth win for the show). He will soon begin work on both writing and directing Gumball’s fifth season.
Matthias Hoegg: BAFTA nominated Animation Director, ADC Young Gun; previously a BAA finalist for Best Student Film and now a Finalist for BAA 2016. Has worked in children’s TV, animated documentary, branding and commercials. Studio.
Gil Alkabetz: German-based Israeli animator/director, illustrator and cartoonist, and teacher. His short films brilliantly combine humour with formal experimentation and have won over 150 awards between them, and include 1+1, The Da Vinci Timecode, Vollmond, Morir di Amor, Rubicon, Yankale, Swamp.
Nick Park: Needs no introduction. A national treasure whose characters Wallace & Gromit are beloved by the entire planet! But, for the record: his NFTS graduation film, A Grand Day Out, got him scooped up by Aardman before it was even finished, and meant he ended up competing against himself at the Oscars in 1991 with Creature Comforts! After two more W&G specials, one of which sired the equally award winning TV series Shaun the Sheep, his co-directed features Chicken Run and Curse of the Were Rabbit were also international hits.
Tess Laurence: has worked for more than 15 years in the business directing, product-category anti-acidity, animating and producing a number of multi award winning music videos and commercials as well as independent films. She is currently a freelance designer and illustrator and a Senior Lecturer in Animation (BA Hons) at the University of Westminster’