British Animation Awards: ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong,’ ‘Affairs of the Art’ Take Top Prizes

The winners of the biennial British Animation Awards 2022 (britishanimationawards.com) were announced 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 26th year, the BAAs recognize the outstanding work of the U.K.’s most successful creative industries.

BAA Director Helen Brunsdon and Producer Kieran Argo said, “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 U.K.”

“The BAAs are the only awards to recognize all forms of animation and reward the work of both new and established animators across all aspects of the U.K. animation scene, from student work to commercials, children’s entertainment, short and experiential films, music videos and new technologies,” noted Julia Lopez, MP, Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) in a message of support.

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. Affairs of the Art picked 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 filmmaking partners Joanna Quinn and Les Mills, the short continues the story of larger-than-life Welsh housewife Beryl who has artistic ambitions on a grand scale. Meanwhile, Aardman Animations’ beautiful Netflix Original film Robin Robin, 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 Preschool. 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 Animation’s 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 Zhan’s (NFTS) O Black Hotel! 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 favorites 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 U.K. 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.

BAA 2022 Nominees & Winners:

Best Long Form

• Sesame Street: The Monster at The End of the Story – Dir: Mark Taylor
• Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas – Dir: Steve Cox
• WINNER: Ron’s Gone Wrong – Dir: Jean- Philippe Vine, Sarah Smith, Octavio E. Rodriguez (Co-Director)

Best Voice Performance

• Taika Waititi and Ricky Gervais – Save Ralph
• Ben Whishaw – The Adventures of Paddington
• Bella Ramsey – Hilda “The Fifty Year Night”
• Bel Powley – Little My in Moominvalley
• WINNER: Menna Trussler – Beryl in Affairs of the Art

Best Children’s Series

• The Brilliant World of Tom Gates – Dir: George Sawyer
• Hilda “The Deerfox” – Dir: Andy Coyle
• WINNER: Milo – Dir: Chris Capstick

Best Children’s Preschool

• The Adventures of Paddington – Dir: Adam Shaw, Chris Drew
• Hey Duggee – Dir: Grant Orchard, Sander Jones
• Circle Square – Dir: Greg Mcleod Milo – Dir: Chris Capstick
• WINNER: Pip and Posy – Dir: Jeroen Jaspaert, Matt Tea

Best Animation in a Commercial

• The Girl Who Built a Rocket – Dir: Neeraja Rj
• Save Ralph – Dir: Spencer Susser
• MotoGP Returns – Dir: Andton Alfimenko
• WINNER: Breath of Nature – Dir: Peter Szewczyk

Best Music Video

• Mama Jerk and the Ladyfingers “Mountain” – Dir: Harrison Fleming
• Foo Fighters “Chasing Birds” – Dir: Emlyn Davies, Josh Hicks
• Christy Moore “The Voyage” – Dir: Jessica Patterson
• Jamie Cullum “Age of Anxiety” – Dir: Neil Pymer
• WINNER: Rocket Freudental “Der Stuhlkreis” – Dir: Ged Haney

Writers Award

• Circle Square “Pizza Mystery” – Myles Mcleod
• Ron’s Gone Wrong – Peter Baynham and Sarah Smith
• The Rubbish World of Dave Spud “Twinfestation” – Madeleine Brettingham
• Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas – Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow
• WINNER: Affairs of the Art – Les Mills

Best Post Graduate Film

• Other Half – Lina Kalcheva – National Film & Television School
• Eating in the Dark – Inari Sirola – Royal College of Arts London
• WINNER: O Black Hole! – Renee Zhan – National Film & Television School

Best Short Film

• FlattenTheCurve#1 – Dir: Studio Desk, Kathrin Steinbacher, Emily Downe
• Meow or Never – Dir: Neeraja Raj
• Save Ralph – Dir: Spencer Susser
• Black Slide – Dir: Uri Lotan
• WINNER: Affairs of the Art – Dir: Joanna Quinn

Best Original Music

• Sol – Music by Michael Keeney, Chris Strong, Dir: Gráinee McGuiness
• I Am Odd – Composers Benjamin Giroux, Mike Connaris
• Edgar’s Christmas – Composer Mike MacLenan, Dir: Kyra Buscho and Constantin Paeplow
• Love Monster – Theme music by Jeremy Warmsley, Score composed by Esther Joy Land and Hannah Charman, Dir: Rufus Blackstock
• WINNER: Robin Robin – Music by The Bookshop Band – Ben Please and Beth Porter, Dir: Dan Ojari, Mikey Please

Best Social Good

• Diabetes Symptoms – Dir: Angie Phillips, Phoebe Halstead
• Up River: A Shadventure on the River Severn – Dir: Tom Stubbs
• You Being You – Dir: Kong Studio
• Sinking Feeling – Dir: Mark Spokes
• WINNER: Typically – Dir: Anna Ginsburg, Caitlin McCarthy

Best Under-Graduate

• To Be a Goat – Milda Kargaudaite – University of Creative Arts in Farnham
• True Colours – Hanna Lea Wyttenbach – Arts University Bournemouth
• Case Closed – Lucy Gatenby – Falmouth University School of Film and Television
• @Scroll Alice – Céline Ufenast – University of Creative Arts in Farnham
• WINNER: Suburb – Miles Jezuita – Arts University Bournemouth

Best Use of Sound

• Elliot from Earth “Wednesday pt. 2” – Dir: Mic Graves, Tony Hull, Rhys Byfield, Mikey Please
• Hilda “The Deerfox” – Dir: Andy Coyle
• The Rubbish World of Dave Spud “Burning Wheels” – Dir: Ed Foster
• Pip and Posy “Swapsies” – Jason Heath, Dir: Jeroen Jaspaert, Matt Tea
• WINNER: Zog and the Flying Doctors – Adrian Rhodes, Dir: Sean Mullen

Best Design

• Ron’s Gone Wrong – Dir: Jean- Philippe Vine, Sarah Smith, Octavio E. Rodriguez (Co-Director)
• Raised By Wolves – Dir: Steve Small
• Circle Square “Jungle House” – Dir: Greg McLeod
• WINNER: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey – Dir: Ian Spendloff

Best Factual

• Timeline – Osbert Parker
• WINNER: Save Ralph – Dir: Spencer Susser

Lamb Award

• Sanna Räsänen – Art Director and Puppet Maker – Nominated by One6th
• Teifi Cadwallader – Animator – Nominated by Cloth Cat
• Lisa-Mae Evans – Mid Look Development Artist Nominated by Blue Zoo Animation
• Emilie Brown – Lead Props Modeler – Nominated by Blue Zoo Animation
• WINNER: Hodan Abdi – Production Co-ordinator – Nominated by Illuminated Films

Cutting Edge

• Save Ralph – Dir: Spencer Susser
• Sub-Surface – Dir: Alex Robinson
• WINNER: Dead Pixels S2 – Dir: Jamie Jay Johnson, Asa Movshovitz

Wildcard (Awarded to animations of any duration deemed ‘extraordinary’)

• Boris Johnson Eats a Pot Noodle in the Bath – Dir: Ross Butter
• Strange – Dir: Cameron Carr
• Squib: When All of This Is Over – Dir: Baz Sells
• Hench Girl Summer – Dir: Beatriz Antunes
• WINNER: Timeline – Dir: Osbert Parker

Best Immersive Animation

• Peace of Mind – Dir: Ben Steer
• Madrid Noir – Dir: James A Castillo
• WINNER: The Beast – Dir: Grant Berry & Dane Winn

Audience Award: Short Film

• Black Slide – Dir: Uri Lotan

Audience Award: Music Video

• Time to Recover – Dir: Tony Comley

Children’s Choice Award

• The Brilliant World of Tom Gates – Dir: George Sawyer