‘The Snail and the Whale’ Wins Double BAFTA Children’s Honors

BAFTA announced the winners of this year’s BAFTA Children & Young People Awards. Hosted by TV and radio presenter Lindsey Russell, the awards ceremony is a celebration of U.K. and international content for children and young people spanning film, games and television.

Magic Light Pictures’ charming 2019 special The Snail and the Whale, another of the studio’s popular adaptations of a children’s book by writer Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler scored an impressive double win with both the Animation prize and Director honors for first-time helmers Max Lang and Daniel Snaddon.

This year’s C&YP BAFTAs were particularly animated, with tooned up titles dominating many categories including Feature Film. Carton Saloon/Melusine/Apple’s widely acclaimed 2D folklore adventure Wolfwalkers pulling ahead of an all-animated nomination pack.

Bluey won in another happenstance all-animation race, for the best International program, El Deafo was recognized with the Content for Change award and  The Amazing World of Gumball took the Writer award. Meanwhile, Hey Duggee picked up its fourth BAFTA for Preschool Animation.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure won the Game category, following its win in the BAFTA Games Awards in 2021.

The awards were presented by a host of stars and content creators including Alishea Cambell-Drummond, Joseph Coelho, Dani Harmer, Jason Isaacs, Molly Rainford, Ben Shires, Inel Tomlinson and Amir Wilson, as well as BAFTA Young Presenter competition winners, Maryam and Jeriah. The ceremony took place at the Old Billingsgate in London.