The British Academy Children's Awards were an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They were awarded annually from 1996, before then they were a part of the main British Academy Television Awards. Categories included those for television productions, feature films and video games.
The final ceremony, the 25th British Academy Children's Awards, was held on 27 November 2022, at Old Billingsgate in London, and was hosted by television presenter Lindsey Russell. The ceremony marked the return of the awards after a three-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2023, BAFTA discontinued the children's awards, citing a decline in entries and engagement, with new categories for children's content introduced in the film, games and television award ceremonies in 2025.
History The awards were first presented in 1996, and the awards was presented annually, with the exception 2020 and 2021, where the awards were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 1996, productions targeted to children or young audiences were included in the British Academy Television Awards, from 1983 to 1996, two children-oriented categories, Children's Programme – Factual and Children's Programme – Fiction or Entertainment were presented. The last winners for those categories before the children's awards ceremony was created were CBBC's programme Short Change for the former and television movie Coping with Christmas for the latter.
The first edition featured seven competitive categories (Animation, Drama, Entertainment, Factual, Pre-School, Schools - Documentary, Schools - Drama), along with two special awards, one for film producer John Coates and the other for Lewis Rudd, who was head to the children's programming for ITV. The number of categories varied through the editions with the creation of several categories such as International and Feature Film, both in 1999, Pre-School Animation and Presenter, both in 2000, and Game in 2007, among others. Until 2016, the awards also presented categories voted by the public through online voting, these included categories for feature film, television, video game and website.
Categories In the final ceremony in 2022, the following fourteen competitive categories were presented:
Animation Feature Film Pre-School – Animation Pre-School – Live Action Non-Scripted International Content for Change Game Scripted Game Performer Young Performer Director Writer
Awards winners Animation
Performer
Young Performer
Pre-School Animation
Live Action
Presenter
Writer
Director
International
Feature Film
Game
Scripted
Non-Scripted
Content for Change
Special Award
Channel of the Year
Comedy
Drama
Entertainment
Factual
Factual Entertainment
Short Form
Independent Production Company
Interactive Original 2014: Dixi 2015: Virry 2016: Secret Life of Boys
Adapted 2014: Disney Animated 2015: The Dumping Ground: You're the Boss 2016: Get Well Soon Hospital with Dr Ranj 2017: Hey Duggee: We Love Animals
Learning Primary
Secondary
Pre-School Discontinued in 2000, for separate categories for live-action and animation.
1996: Tots TV 1997: Tots TV (Lapland Out) 1998: Teletubbies 1999: Tecwyn Y Tractor
Schools: Drama
Schools Factual Primary Discontinued in 2006 for Learning: Primary.
Secondary Discontinued in 2006 for Learning: Secondary.
Interactive Discontinued in 2014 for separate Interactive categories: Original and Adapted.
BAFTA Kids' Vote Discontinued in 2009, for separate voting categories for feature film, television, video game and website.
Website 2009: Club Penguin 2010: Club Penguin 2011: Bin Weevils 2012: Bin Weevils 2013: Bin Weevils 2014: Bin Weevils
Feature Film
Television
Video Game
Writer Adapted Discontinued in 2006 for one sole Writer category. 2004: Debbie Isitt (The Illustrated Mum) 2005: Barbara Cox (Wipe Out)
Original Discontinued in 2006 for one sole Writer category. 2004: Tony Collingwood (Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!) 2005: John Godber and Jane Thornton (Scene - Oddsquad)
Breakthrough Talent 2007: Charles Martin 2008: Eliot Otis Brown Walters 2009: Adam Shaw
CBBC Me and My Movie 2008: The Prank 2009: Vern's Vacation
BAFTA Young Game Designers 2010: HAMSTER: Accidental World Domination 2011: Rollin' Scotch
Game Concept 2012: Vacuum Panic AKA Suck It Up
Game Making 2012: Smiley Dodgems
Multiplatform 2013: Kinect Sesame Street TV
Ceremonies Event Date Venue Host(s) Ref. 1st 1996 rowspan="2" rowspan="3" 2nd 6 April 1997 3rd 18 October 1998 Thorpe Park 4th 7 November 1999 London Hilton Katy Hill 5th 12 November 2000 Emma BuntonOrtis Deley 6th 2 December 2001 Kate Thornton 7th 24 November 2002 Richard Blackwood 8th 30 November 2003Fearne Cotton 9th 28 November 2004 10th 27 November 2005 Emma Forbes 11th 26 November 2006 Reggie Yates 12th 25 November 2007 Keith Chegwin 13th 29 November 2008 14th 29 November 2009 Dick and Dom 15th 28 November 2010 Barney Harwood 16th 27 November 2011 17th 25 November 2012 18th 24 November 2013 Jake Humphrey 19th 23 November 2014 The Roundhouse Doc Brown 20th 22 November 2015 21st 20 November 2016 22nd 26 November 2017 23rd 25 November 2018 Marvin HumesRochelle Humes 24th 1 December 2019 The Brewery, London 25th 27 November 2022 Old Billingsgate Lindsey Russell
References
External links