Jan 18, 2024

Spider-Verse, The Boy and the Hare, Elemental, and Chicken Run nominated for Animated Feature BAFTA

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the UK's equivalent of the Academy Awards, has announced this year's nominees, including animated features, animated shorts, and VFX.

This year's home country is represented by Aardman Animations' "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget," directed by Sam Fell, a Netflix original stop-motion film that is a sequel to Aardman's first animated feature, "Chicken Run. and was nominated for a 2001 BAFTA for Best British Film and Best Visual Effects.

This is the first time that Hayao Miyazaki, director of Spirited Away, has been nominated for a BAFTA since Spirited Away in 2004.

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson's Across the Spider-Verse is looking to repeat the feat of their previous film, Into the Spider-Verse, which won an animated feature BAFTA in 2018. The film's British composer, Daniel Pemberton, was also nominated for Best Original Score.

"Elemental" remains Disney's strongest contender for this year's awards season, closing out the BAFTAs in the animated feature category. Disney and Pixar may not have as much control over the BAFTAs as the Academy Awards, but they have won the BAFTA for Best Animated Feature 10 times since its inception in 2006.

This year's British Animated Short Film category, despite recognizing only three films, shows a remarkable diversity in style and technique.

Ross Stringer's "Crab Day," featuring hand-drawn 2D animation, is a coming-of-age story about a boy who must kill a crab for the first time to prove he is a man and win his father's approval, which is surprisingly cute given its murderous narrative.

Samantha Moore's stop-motion documentary Visible Mending examines the ways in which people use knitting techniques to repair themselves, even if complete repair is impossible. The full short film was released last week by the New York Times Film Club, along with some thought-provoking questions.

Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, and Jay Woolley's "Wild Summon" was recently shortlisted for an Academy Award and appears to be a strong contender for this year's BAFTA. This fantasy/natural history short film follows the life cycle of a salmon, but the fish in the film take on human form; the surreal nature of Wild Summon is supported by surreal VFX and animation.

This year's VFX nominees include "The Creator," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," "Mission: Impossible: Deadly Hallows," "Napoleon" and "Poor Things. Oppenheimer" was not nominated in the VFX category, despite winning several effects awards at major ceremonies in recent weeks and being the most nominated film at this year's BAFTAs.

The 2024 BAFTA Film Awards will be hosted by David Tennant on Sunday, February 18 and can be viewed on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and Britbox in North America.

Click here to see the BAFTA nominees for Animation and VFX in 2024.