BAFTA has announced that multi-award-winning animation studio Blue Zoo will receive a BAFTA Special Award next month, recognising the studio’s “extraordinary 25-year legacy in children’s media and its significant social and cultural impact”.
The honour celebrates Blue Zoo’s commitment to creating animation that educates, empowers and entertains millions of children and families around the world, BAFTA said – work that reflects BAFTA’s “mission to champion excellence in content for children and young people”.
The award will be presented to Blue Zoo’s co-founders Adam Shaw, Oli Hyatt MBE and Tom Box as part of a special presentation and celebratory lunch at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly on Monday 8 December.
The charity’s Board of Trustees gifts a select number of Special Awards annually to individuals and teams that have made a significant cultural and social impact.
Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA, said: “Blue Zoo’s work exemplifies the very best of the screen arts – innovation with impact, and entertainment with purpose.
“For an incredible 25 years, Blue Zoo has created worlds that educate and empower, reflecting the diversity of modern childhood and proving that animation can be a powerful tool for learning, laughter and lasting change.
“We are delighted to honour a studio that champions inclusivity and imagination at every level of production.”
Oli Hyatt MBE, co-founder and managing director of Blue Zoo, said: “Receiving a BAFTA Special Award is a profound honour.
“From the start, we’ve believed animation can do more than raise a smile: it can teach, empower, and build lovable worlds that matter to children and families everywhere. It’s a huge pat on the back for Blue Zoo, our fantastic staff, our clients, and, by extension, to the wider animation community. This award is as much for them as it is for us.”
Blue Zoo was founded in 2000 and has since become the UK’s largest and one of its most respected producers of children’s and family content.
BAFTA said: “For 25 years, the BAFTA-winning studio has combined creativity with purpose, using art and storytelling as a powerful tool to create immersive worlds that inform and ignite curiosity.”
Featured across BBC, Netflix, StudioCanal and its own YouTube channel, Blue Zoo has brought to life numerous series, including Daytime Emmy-winning The Adventures of Paddington, LEGO City: No Limits, Mojo Swoptops and its debut project, which coincided with the launch of CBeebies back in 2000, Blue Cow for The Story Makers.
It was the first TV and film animation studio to be B Corp certified, achieving the certification in September 2021, demonstrating that it “meets high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency”.
It has also worked pro bono with charities to use the power of animation to highlight key social issues.
These include Sinking Feeling – created for PAPYRUS UK, the charity working to prevent youth suicide – and most recently its multi-award-winning We Campaign Because They Can’t, for the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds.
