BAFTA Announces 2012 Children's Awards Nominations

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 2012 British Academy Children's Awards, which take place on Sunday, November 25 at the London Hilton, Park Lane.

Children’s BAFTA winner and Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood will return to host the Awards that celebrate the very best in children’s media, including television, film, video games and online.

Double world record holder Helen Skelton can now add a second Children’s BAFTA nomination to her list of achievements for presenting Helen’s Polar Challenge For Sport Relief. The programme saw her become the first person in the world to reach the South Pole by bicycle. Skelton is nominated in the Presenter category alongside last year’s winner Steve Backshall, Milkshake’s Kemi Majeks and previous winner Justin Fletcher, who also has two nominated programmes in the Pre-School Live Action category.

The Performer category features stiff competition between upcoming and established talent, with 14 year old rapper and actor Khalil Madovi up against 59 year old Young One Nigel Planer.

Three nominations go to the hugely successful series Horrible Histories, which has received nominations in the same categories for the last three years (Comedy, Writer and Performer), and winning for Comedy last year.

The four films nominated in the Feature Film category this year include BAFTA Fellow Martin Scorsese’s Hugo and Disney’s The Muppets. The Hunger Games and Arthur Christmas, the two other films competing for the Award, also appear in the BAFTA Kids’ Vote shortlist.

The final series of Tracy Beaker Returns, featuring Strictly Come Dancing star Dani Harmer, receives two nominations, for Drama and Writer, and a BAFTA Kids’ Vote shortlisting in the Television category. The popular Tracy Beaker series has now received nine nominations at the Children’s Awards over the years. The Amazing World of Gumball also receives two nominations, for Writer and Animation – the same two categories in which it won last year, and is shortlisted for the Kids’ Vote in the Television category too.

Junior Bake Off follows the success of The Great British Bake Off, the BAFTA-winning television programme at this year’s Television Awards, by being nominated in the Entertainment category.

The BAFTA Kids’ Vote opens for voting today: 7-14 year olds will have their say across a whole range of entertainment media in a nationwide poll to choose their favourite film, television programme, website and video game. The shortlist in each category is incredibly strong this year, with films including The Hunger Games, Marvel Avengers Assemble, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 all going head-to-head in the Feature Film category. Nominations for Television show include The Sarah Jane Adventures, Tracy Beaker Returns, Phineas and Ferb, House of Anubis and Almost Naked Animals.

The BAFTA Kids’ Vote opens today (23 October) at 09.00 and closes on Friday 23 November 2012 at 18.00. Children can cast their votes at www.baftakidsvote.org.

For a third year, the winners of the annual BAFTA Young Game Designers competition will be announced at the Awards ceremony. The competition is open to 11-16 year olds and aims to inspire the game designers and game-makers of the future. For the first time this year there were two categories: the Game Concept Award for young people who submitted an idea for a new game; and the Game-making Award, presented by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, for young people who made their own game using computer software. The top three entrants in both categories will attend the ceremony, and the winners will have their game developed further with experts from the University of Abertay Dundee, as well as visiting SCE London Studio, makers of the BAFTA Award-winning EyeToy® and SingStar® franchises. BAFTA has partnered with Abertay University and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) on the initiative.

The British Academy Children’s Awards represent all aspects of children’s entertainment: Animation, Channel of the Year, Comedy, Drama, Entertainment, Factual, Feature Film, Independent Production Company, Interactive, International, Learning–Primary, Learning–Secondary, Performer, Pre-school Animation, Pre-school Live Action, Presenter, Short Form, Video Game and Writer.

To visit the nominations page, click here.

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