The British Academy Children's Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They have been awarded annually since 1996, before which time they were a part of the main British Academy Television Awards. It currently includes categories for television productions, feature films and video games.
| British Academy Children's Awards | |
|---|---|
| Current: British Academy Children's Awards 2022 | |
 | |
| Awarded for | The best in media directed to children and young people. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| First awarded | 1996 |
| Last awarded | 2022 |
| Website | www |
The most recent ceremony, the 25th British Academy Children's Awards, was held on 27 November 2022 at Old BillingsgateinLondon, and was hosted by television presenter Lindsey Russell.[1] The ceremony marked the return of the awards after a three-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] In September 2023, BAFTA confirmed that the children's awards would be folded and incorporated into the annual film, games and television award ceremonies in 2025 with new categories introduced for children's content.[3]
The awards were held for the first time in 1996, since then, the awards have been presented annually, with the exception 2020 and 2021, where the awards were not held 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 were CBBC's programme Short Change for the former and television movie Coping with Christmas for the latter.[4][5]
The first edition featured seven competitive categories (Animation, Drama, Entertainment, Factual, Pre-School, Schools - Documentary, Schools - Drama), plus 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.[6][7] The number of categories has 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.[8][9][10] 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.[11]
As of 2022, the following fourteen competitive categories are presented:
Discontinued in 2000, for separate categories for live-action and animation.
Discontinued in 2006 for Learning: Primary.
Discontinued in 2006 for Learning: Secondary.
Discontinued in 2014 for separate Interactive categories: Original and Adapted.
Discontinued in 2009, for separate voting categories for feature film, television, video game and website.
Discontinued in 2006 for one sole Writer category.
Discontinued in 2006 for one sole Writer category.
| Event | Date | Venue | Host(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1996 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 2nd | 6 April 1997 | |||
| 3rd | 18 October 1998 | Thorpe Park | [15] | |
| 4th | 7 November 1999 | London Hilton | Katy Hill | [16] |
| 5th | 12 November 2000 | Emma Bunton Ortis Deley |
[17] | |
| 6th | 2 December 2001 | Kate Thornton | ||
| 7th | 24 November 2002 | Richard Blackwood | [18] | |
| 8th | 30 November 2003 | Fearne Cotton | [19] | |
| 9th | 28 November 2004 | [20] | ||
| 10th | 27 November 2005 | Emma Forbes | [21] | |
| 11th | 26 November 2006 | Reggie Yates | [22] | |
| 12th | 25 November 2007 | Keith Chegwin | [23] | |
| 13th | 29 November 2008 | [24] | ||
| 14th | 29 November 2009 | Dick and Dom | [25] | |
| 15th | 28 November 2010 | Barney Harwood | [26] | |
| 16th | 27 November 2011 | [27] | ||
| 17th | 25 November 2012 | [28] | ||
| 18th | 24 November 2013 | Jake Humphrey | [29] | |
| 19th | 23 November 2014 | The Roundhouse | Doc Brown | [30] |
| 20th | 22 November 2015 | [31] | ||
| 21st | 20 November 2016 | [32] | ||
| 22nd | 26 November 2017 | [33] | ||
| 23rd | 25 November 2018 | Marvin Humes Rochelle Humes |
[34] | |
| 24th | 1 December 2019 | The Brewery, London |
|
[35] |
| 25th | 27 November 2022 | Old Billingsgate | Lindsey Russell | [1] |