The biennial awards ceremony is one of the UK animation industry’s landmark events and recognises excellence in the field.
Ethel & Ernest is the most nominated animation at the awards and is up for Best Long Form Animation, Best Use of Sound, Best Voice Performance for Brenda Blethyn as title character Ethel and Best Craft for the animation team, which was led by director Roger Mainwood, animation director Peter Dodd and art director Robin Shaw.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt will join Ethel & Ernest in the running for Best Long Form Animation, as the second of three films shortlisted for the prize. The film was directed by Joanna Harrison and Robin Shaw.
“We’re so excited to have both films in the running at the British Animation Awards. The awards celebrate the strength and diversity of British animation and it’s an honour and a great pleasure to be nominated. Both films are hand drawn 2D animation and therefore a lot of hard work and creative endeavour by many talented people went into making them and we are so pleased that the BAA juries recognised that.’
Lupus Films’ co-founders Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding
The BAA ceremony will be held at London’s BFI Southbank on March 15, 2018, attended by the great and the good of British Animation. Previous winners at the awards include Tim Burton, Nick Park, Simon Tofield, Gorillaz and Martin Freeman.
Voiced by Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn and Luke Treadaway, with a musical score by Carl Davis and an original song written by Paul McCartney, Ethel & Ernest is based on the award winning graphic novel by Raymond Briggs and follows the story of his own parents – two ordinary Londoners living through a period of extraordinary social change.
The film was produced by Lupus Films in association with Ethel & Ernest Productions, Mélusine Productions and Cloth Cat Animation and was supported by the BFI, BBC, Film Fund Luxembourg, UPHE Content Group, Ffilm Cymru Wales and the Welsh Government.
Based on the much loved picture book written by Michael Rosen with illustrations by Helen Oxenbury, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt follows the adventures of a group of siblings who decide one day to go on an adventure through the countryside in search of bears.
With characters voiced by Olivia Colman, Mark Williams, Pam Ferris, the 30-minute animation is a Lupus Films production in association with Bear Hunt Films and Walker Productions for Channel 4, Universal Pictures and Herrick Entertainment with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA programme of the European Union. It was first aired in the UK on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve 2016 and was Channel 4’s most watched programme across all genres in four years.
