'Kubo And The Two Strings' Bags a BAFTA

Sunday February 12th saw the BAFTA Film Awards take place in London. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out their iconic golden masks to some of the top talents in film from around the world- including in the animation awards categories.

The highest profile of these was- of course- the Best Animated Feature. In this category, three out of four were Disney/Pixar films- Zootropolis ( aka Zootopia), Moana and Finding Dory. Ultimately though, the one non-Disney film nominated- LAIKA's Kubo and The Two Strings-surprised by overcoming the odds to take the prize.

The BAFTAs are often seen as an indicator for the result we might see later at the Oscars. Could a similar upset happen there? It's possible, but it wouldn't be the first time that BAFTA has differed in the category- having previously awarded The LEGO Movie, which the US Academy didn't even nominate.





Elsewhere, Disney did pick up an award in the Visual Effects category for The Jungle Book. Jon Favreau's primarily CG animated effort beat out strong competition from Rogue One, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Arrival.




Finally, in the British Animated Short category, the award went to A Love Story. The stop-motion short was directed by Khaled Gad, Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara and Elena Ruscombe-King. 




The full list of winners can be found here.