Director Helen Brunsdon and Producer Kieran Argo onstage at the 2022 BAAs

The winners have been announced for the prestigious British Animation Awards 2022 at a ceremony held tonight at London’s BFI Southbank, presented by comedian Miles Jupp and sponsored by Hanna Barbera Studios Europe.  Now in their 26^th year, the British Animation Awards (BAAs) attract the great and the good from one of the nation’s most successful creative industries to this biennial celebration of their craft.

Gathering momentum ahead of the Academy Awards later this month, Britain’s two Oscar-nominated short films Affairs of the Art and Robin Robin were triumphant in their categories with Affairs of the Art, picking up three awards: Best Short Film, Writers Award and Best Voice Performance (for 86-year-old Little Britain star Menna Trussler as ‘Beryl’).  Created by film-making partners Joanna Quinn and Les Mills, Affairs of the Art continues the story of larger-than-life Welsh housewife Beryl who has artistic ambitions on a grand scale.  Meanwhile Robin Robin, Aardman Animations’ beautiful Netflix Original film about an optimistic robin raised by a family of mice, won the award for Best Original Music for its score written by The Bookshop Band – Ben Please and Beth Porter.

London-based animation studio Magic Light Pictures was successful in two categories, with BBC-One Christmas special Zog and the Flying Doctors winning for Best Use of Sound and delightful Milkshake! and Sky Kids series Pip and Posy, picking up the award for Best Children’s Pre-School.  Meanwhile, the Best Children’s category was won by Fourth Wall’s feline-focused series Milo, also shown on Channel 5’s Milkshake!

One of the closest-fought categories of the night was the prestigious Best Long Form category, which saw victory for Locksmith Animations’ debut feature Ron’s Gone Wrong. Directed by Jean-Phillipe Vine, Sarah Smith and Octavio E Rodriguez, the film tells the story of a socially-awkward middle-schooler who befriends a defective robot.

Providing a breath of fresh air in the Best Animation in a Commercial category was Airwick for its Breath of Nature campaign, directed by Peter Szewczyk of Nerd Productions.  And rocking the Best Music Video Award was animator Ged Haney, with his video for Rocket Freudental’s ‘Der Stuhlkreis’.

A hard-hitting film featuring the voices of some of Hollywood’s hottest stars picked up the award for Best Factual.  Save Ralph, an animated short film warning about the cruelty of testing on animals, produced for the Humane Society International, was written and directed by Spencer Susser and featured the voices of Taika Waititi, Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron and Oliver Munn.  Meanwhile, the Social Good category was won by Typically, a film aiming to remove the taboo surrounding periods, produced for period poverty charity Bloody Good Period and directed by Anna Ginsburg and Caitlin McCarthy.

In two of the new categories for 2022, the Best Immersive Animation award was picked up by Grant Berry and Dane Winn’s The Beast, while the Wildcard category was won by Osbert Parker’s Timeline.

Continuing to challenge the status quo, the Cutting-Edge award was won by Jamie Jay Johnson and Asa Movshovitz’s E4 series about a role-playing fantasy game Dead Pixels.  And this year’s Design Award was won by Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, a Netflix Original directed by Ian Spendloff, with VFX by Lucy Hare.

Some of the leading British animation courses were represented in the Best Undergraduate and Best Postgraduate Student film categories including nominees from Falmouth University School of Film and Television, University of Creative Arts in Farnham, Arts University Bournemouth, Royal College of Arts London and National Film & Television School. The winners were Renee Zahn’s (NFTS) O Black Hole! for Best Postgraduate Student Film and Miles Jezuita’s (Arts University Bournemouth) Suburb for Best Undergraduate Student Film.

Introduced in 2020, The Lamb Award bridges the gap between current categories which recognise student achievements and general best-in-class awards, and is open to any young professionals working in the animation and VFX industry.  The winner of the 2022 Lamb Award is Production Coordinator Hodan Abdi, who was nominated by Illuminated Films.

Three awards on the night were decided by members of the public, voting for their favourites in a special online poll.  The winners of these audience awards were:  Tony Comley’s Time to Recover for Best Music Video, Uri Lotan’s Black Slide for Best Short Film and Sky Kids’ hit children’s series The Brilliant World of Tom Gates for the Children’s Choice Award.

The awards themselves (the BAAs) are unique artworks, featuring sheep, created especially for the occasion by a range of leading international and UK animation artists: a measure of the worldwide respect felt for British animation.  This year’s awards include designs by author/illustrators Liz Pichon and Rachel Bright and legendary film-maker Terry Gilliam.

We have been amazed at the quality of the entrants for this year’s British Animation Awards and would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and nominees.  After a particularly tough couple of years animation continues to be one of the most productive and creative industries in the UK.

-BAA Director Helen Brunsdon and Producer Kieran Argo

In a  message of support recorded for the awards, Julia Lopez, MP,  Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) praised the originality, quality and innovation of the UK’s world class animation workforce.

The BAAs are the only awards to recognise all forms of animation and reward the work of both new and established animators across all aspects of the UK Animation scene, from student work to commercials, children’s entertainment, short and experiential films, music videos and new technologies.

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The #NoShameHere campaign aims to remove the secrecy and shame which surrounds periods with the release of a new film, created by Mother in partnership with Strange Beast and Directed by Anna Ginsburg and Caitlin McCarthy. Following the period experiences of a diverse group of people who menstruate, the film is upbeat, open and celebratory. The CeCe Peniston classic Finally – now named Typically – features updated lyrics to bring home period realities.

Unbelievably, there is still huge shame and taboo attached to periods, despite it being a natural and normal biological function. This is compounded for many by an inability to freely access or afford period products when they need them. Research from Bloody Good Period reveals:

• –  9 in 10 of those who menstruate experience period anxiety at work (*1)
• –  63% want employers to normalise talking about periods in the workplace (*2)
• –  Hiding period products is considered ‘the norm’ – 97% of respondents in a social media poll agreed (*3)

• –  25% have experienced a time where they have had to take time off due to menstrual health issues, and it has impacted their career progression.

• –  When asked what employers could do to support them when it comes to their menstrual health, 56% said to encourage and support time off for necessary health checks e.g. cervical smears.
• –  The pandemic has worsened the problem of access and affordability: Bloody Good Period is now meeting a level of demand six times higher than pre-Covid, with over 81,000 packs of products distributed since the start of UK lockdown. (*4)

Gabby Edlin, CEO of Bloody Good Period, commented:

“It’s 2021 and time we confine period shame to history. On Menstrual Health Day, we’re asking everyone to wake up to periods being a part of life and recognise that society needs to accept this natural biological process. By shifting attitudes and making period products accessible, we can help everyone, especially the most marginalised in our society – those living in poverty, refugees and asylum seekers or lacking period education – to live life to its full potential.”

With demand for BGP’s services still growing, the charity is also asking people to donate to enable them to continue distributing products. Gabby Edlin added

“We believe access to period products is a matter of human rights, because not having them has such a range of consequences – for our physical and mental health, and for all of us as a society. Until they are freely available for everyone who needs them, we’ll be here getting products out to people who need them.”

Susan Hosking, Executive Creative Director, International at Mother said

“Periods are a part of life for so many of us, and though we don’t always want to sing and dance about them, a promo was a brilliant medium to get us talking about them. Using positivity and entertainment is a way for us to get the conversation flowing, and hopefully help us shake off the shame and stigma so wrongly attached to them.”

You can sponsor a period at www.bloodygoodperiod.com/donate.

About Bloody Good Period

• Bloody Good Period fights for menstrual equity and the rights of all people who bleed.
• They provide period products to refugees, asylum-seekers and those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford or access them. Without reliable access to period products, people are forced to use socks, newspaper, tissue – or nothing at all.
• Since the start of UK lockdown in March 2020, BGP has distributed over 79,000 packs of period products – a level of demand that’s six times higher than pre-pandemic.
• BGP is calling for period products to be #BloodyFree: sign the petition here
• You can take part in No Shame Here on Instagram account, and donate at

www.bloodygoodperiod.com/donate

CREDITS
Creative: Mother
Strategy: Mother
Music Artist: Chiara Hunter
Music Arranger: David Etherington
Music Producer: Sian Rogers
Music Supervisor: Sian Rogers & Joshua Gibbard
Music Production Company: SIREN @ Factory Ltd
Publisher: Universal Publishing
Sound studio: Jungle
Sound engineer: Hannah Webster
Production Company: Strange Beast
Directors: Anna Ginsburg, Caitlin McCarthy
Executive Producer: Kitty Turley
Producer: Zoe Muslim
Animation: Campbell Hartley, Harriet Gillian, Charlie Lane Bush, Bianca Beneduci Assad, Magnus Atom, Matt Lloyd, Alex Bernas, Olly Montagu, Giulia Frixione
Animation Assistants: Sacha Beeley, Eloise Garlick, Natasha Pollack, Lois De Silva, Lily Shaul, Julian Gallese, George Wheeler, Bug Shepherd-Barron, Daisy Mojave Holland, Inga Ziemele Compositing: Magnus Atom, Matt Lloyd

*1 A public-facing survey, managed by BGP, called ‘Have Your Bloody Say’ (HYBS), with 3,000 UK respondents, conducted online in late 2020. Full report here.
*2 As above
*3 Social media poll of BGP’s Instagram followers here
*4 BGP’s data records

The post Typically, Directed by Anna Ginsburg & Caitlin McCarthy released for Menstrual Hygiene Day appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.