BAFTA will instead focus on reviewing its children’s activity, as well as look at new ways to support and celebrate the industry.
The British Academy Children’s Awards has been placed on pause for 2020, with the organisation instead reviewing its children’s activity to ensure it is as impactful as possible and to ‘better serve’ the industry and the public in the future.
BAFTA will be focusing its resources into the review, as well as looking at new ways to support and celebrate the industry.
The focus will be ‘to bring the transformative power of film, games and television to everyone’ with considerations including:
- Ensuring the Awards remain relevant to the industry and its audiences
- Reviewing all categories and identifying where they are duplicated across other BAFTA awards ceremonies
- Reaching a wider public audience
- Fully recognising the content that children are viewing
- Involving children’s voices
- Engaging the industry and raising the profile of the ceremony
- Increase the funding available for children’s activity
- Ensuring content from both 2019 and 2020 is recognised in 2021
“This is an exciting opportunity to ensure the BAFTA’s children’s activity recognises the breadth and depth of the content children are viewing today,” commented Helen Blakeman, chair of the Children’s committee. “We are hoping to bring more children’s voices into activity, ensure all crafts are recognised, and engage the industry, increasing the support BAFTA is able to offer to the children’s media industry.”
Amanda Berry OBE, chief executive at BAFTA, added: “This is an exciting opportunity for BAFTA and the industry to re-imagine BAFTA’s work in this sector and come out of the review with a renewed commitment and clear strategic objectives for our children’s activity.”
A similar review was carried out for the BAFTA Games Awards in 2008, which has seen the ceremony go from strength to strength, Amanda pointed out.
The British Academy Children’s Awards has been celebrating and rewarding children’s media since 1996, during which time a number of shows which have successful licensing programmes have won accolades.
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