UK Screen Alliance and Animation UK are delighted to congratulate our CEO Neil Hatton on being awarded an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours list.
The New Year Honours List 2025 recognises selfless service to others from individuals across the UK. It was announced on 30 December that Neil Hatton was awarded an MBE for his services to Visual Effects and Animation in the King’s New Year Honours List.
Neil has been at the helm of UK Screen Alliance since 2016, and most recently led the visual effects (VFX) sector’s successful call for a better incentive to bring more inward investment work to the UK. He estimates that over the years, he has submitted over 30,000 words of evidence for various government consultations on this subject. Thanks to Neil’s persistence and tireless campaigning, with the support of UK Screen Alliance members, the UK’s VFX industry can now expect an increase of 40% to 50% growth in the next few years, creating 2,800 new jobs. The new VFX incentive comes into effect on New Year’s Day.
I’m humbled and thrilled by the news that I have been awarded an MBE. It’s a real high point, to round out an eventful roller-coaster year, with winning the VFX tax credit in the March Budget, only to have the general election throw it all in doubt, before finally securing it again with the new government in October. It is very gratifying to know that from tomorrow, the UK’s VFX sector will be unleashed to achieve its full potential. I want to show huge appreciation to our UK Screen Alliance and Animation UK members, as this award is also very much in recognition of our magnificent sector and all that they do. Without their commitment to supporting our advocacy mission, none of this would have been possible.
Happy new year and happy new tax credit everyone.
Neil Hatton MBE, CEO of UK Screen Alliance
In 2004, Neil was a prime mover in the foundation of the facilities trade body, originally known as UK Post, which subsequently became the UK Screen Alliance. He was an elected board member for many years before being appointed as CEO in 2016. One of his first initiatives was to join forces with Animation UK, to form a partnership with a strong combined voice on shared issues for the most digital parts of the film and TV sector.
As advocate and spokesperson, Neil has supported UK Screen’s members through some turbulent times, from Brexit, to the actors’ and writers’ strikes, to the pandemic. He wrote the Covid guidelines for post production and VFX, which allowed companies to get back to work quickly and safely, and instigated weekly online meetings throughout lockdown to keep post and VFX managers abreast of the changing regulations and government support. He likens this period to being the industry’s “agony aunt”.
Neil has always been a champion for industry training schemes. In 2003, he collaborated with fellow industry bosses Rowan Bray, Charlie Leonard and Mike Ashley to create First Post, a Creative Skillset funded course, which upskilled over 100 runners, allowing them to make their next step up the ladder. This provided the inspiration many years later for a further collaboration with Rowan Bray, when they co-chaired a trailblazer group to create the Post Production Technical Operator apprenticeship, which is now being delivered by London South Bank University.
In 2023, Neil was appointed to the Creative Industries Council, a government convened body that is chaired by the Secretaries of State for Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Department for Business and Trade. There, he chairs the working group on technical education, where his remit extends across vocational skills for the whole creative sector.
Neil is also a member of the High End TV Council (where he chairs the Post and VFX sub group), the British Film Commission’s national advisory board and their business subgroup, Film London’s filming executive task force, the BFI Screen Sector Task Force, and the BFI’s research unit advisory board. He is a non-executive director and founder member of Access:VFX, an organisation focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in VFX and animation.
Neil’s long career in post production started when he joined than BBC in 1979 as a graduate trainee. He worked in the videotape recording department at Television Centre for five years, learning to edit in 1” tape suites. In 1987, he moved to Lynx Video as an online editor. At IBC1990 in Brighton, he spotted the potential of a new technology called non-linear editing, and by 1992, had established his own boutique facility called Frontier Post. Pioneering the use of an early Lightworks, he cut Heavy Weather for the BBC, the first long-form documentary broadcast in the UK that had been offline edited on a non-linear editor. Over the next 15 years, he built Frontier Post from a single offline suite to a full-service post facility with online, grading and audio dubbing. As an editor, he received numerous prime-time broadcast credits on most mainstream channels for programmes such as Horizon, QED, Arena, Ground Force and the Grierson Awards.
The full New Year Honours List has been published in the London Gazette.
