Multi-award-winning animation studio Aardman has announced a partnership with the British Council to deliver the Animate! with Aardman program across 10 of their international learning centers. The edutainment experience has been developed by the studio’s award-winning creative talent to give participants a solid filmmaking outline and all the necessary learning tools to explore the wonderful world of stop motion animation.
“A key aim of Animate! with Aardman is to make it a fully accessible learning experience, inspiring a new generation of filmmakers from a diverse range of backgrounds,” said Ngaio Harding-Hill, Head of Attractions & Live Experiences for the studio. “The British Council partnership will have a huge impact on reaching these goals as it allows the experience to reach audiences across APAC, MENA and Latin America in its pilot year with the ambition to roll out globally in 2025.”
The Animate! with Aardman program has been specifically created to be adaptable to a variety of different settings, such as a live experience led by an event leader for attractions, location-based entertainment, summer camps and festivals, in a classroom context led by a teacher for school holiday programs or extra-curricular events, and as a fully self-led online learning experience. The deliverables are flexible and can be tailored to each partner’s requirements.
“We are excited about building our partnership with Aardman and the opportunity to pilot Animate! with Aardman in 10 of our centers,” said Hamish Buchan, Young Learner Product & Services Manager at the British Council. “Together we aim to combine our expertise to offer our students courses that spark their natural interests to make learning English a fun and memorable adventure.”
Aardman is an employee-owned company, based in Bristol, U.K., co-founded in 1976 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton. The independent, multi-Academy Award and BAFTA Award-winning studio produces feature films, series, advertising, games and interactive entertainment. The studio also runs the Aardman Academy which has a commitment to nurturing talent by delivering excellence in film and animation training and mentoring.
Recent Aardman animation projects include the BAFTA-nominated feature film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Oscar-nominated short film Robin Robin, International Emmy Award winning Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas, BAFTA-nominated preschool series The Very Small Creatures and the recent CGI comedy series for kids, Lloyd of the Flies.
Current productions include a brand-new Wallace & Gromit film which is set for release in 2024, the studio’s first in-house game Chicken Run: Eggstraction, Season 7 of Shaun the Sheep and a third series of The Very Small Creatures.