Magic Light Pictures’ Christmas story Stick Man (pictured) and Turner’s Cartoon Network series The Amazing World of Gumball were the only double winners at the 2016 British Animation Awards ceremony, which took place last night at the British Film Institute in London.
Stick Man scored the Best Voice Performance award for actor Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Sherlock) over strong contenders Chris O’Dowd for Puffin Rock and William Vanderpuye for Rastamouse. The holiday tale also snapped up the BAA for Best Use of Sound.
The Amazing World of Gumball, meanwhile, took home BAAs for Best Children’s Series and the Children’s Choice award, which is determined by a kids jury.
Other top honors went to Aardman Animation’s Shaun the Sheep: The Movie, which won the Best Long-form category over Stick Man and Fettle Animation/BBC Learning production Children of the Holocaust. The award is Aardman’s 20th BAA win over the past two decades.
In the Preschool category, Sixteen South’s mixed media series Lily’s Driftwood Bay: Goodbye Seagull was victorious over Coolabi’s Clangers and Studio AKA’s Hey Duggee.
In addition to honoring established animators, the BAAs also salute new animation talent. This year’s student categories saw Man Up You by Katie Lenton pick up the Best Under-Graduate Student Film,(UCA Farnham), sponsored by Cartoon Network, while Small People with Hats by Sarina Nihei won the award for Best Post-Graduate Film.