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BAFTA Special Award to honour children’s animation studio Blue Zoo

November 10, 2025

BAFTA has announced that multi-award-winning animation studio Blue Zoo will receive a BAFTA Special Award, recognising the studio’s 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 – work that reflects BAFTA’s mission to champion excellence in content for children and young people.

As part of its year-round Young BAFTA programme – which focuses on inspiring and nurturing the next generation of creatives in film, games and TV through its initiatives, events and resources – BAFTA says it is proud to honour a studio that continuously elevates the craft of content creation for young audiences. 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 December 8th.

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, as part of BAFTA’s mission to showcase excellence in films, games, and television as the UK’s leading academy and charity for the screen arts.

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.”

Hyatt 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. 25 years ago, we were just three lads sitting under the stairs of the student union bar, discussing setting up an animation company. We could have only dreamed of moments like this. We hope the Award isn’t just a nod to our past, but it’s a cheer for what we do next at Blue Zoo. We’ll keep giving back, and we’ll keep speaking up for children and for our sector, but most of all, we will keep making high-quality content that inspires and entertains. Thank You BAFTA.”

Blue Zoo was founded in 2000 by university classmates, Box, Hyatt and Shaw, and has since become the UK’s largest and one of the most respected producers of children’s and family content. 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 their 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 their debut project, which coincided with the launch of CBeebies back in 2000, ‘Blue Cow’ for The Story Makers. The studio is the force behind several acclaimed educational series such as Numberblocks (pictured) and Alphablocks (in collaboration with Alphablocks Ltd), which teach foundational numeracy and literacy skills to pre-schoolers. These programmes have become staples in early childhood education, widely praised for their innovation and accessibility.

Blue Zoo was the first TV and film animation studio to be B Corp certified, achieving the certification in September 2021. The B Corp certification verifies that the company meets high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. As part of their commitment to positive change in the world, the studio 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 their multi-award-winning, We Campaign Because They Can’t, for the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Produced in collaboration with GOOD Agency, this series of short animations used creativity and humour to highlight environmental issues and encourage young audiences to advocate for nature.

Beyond its own productions, Blue Zoo places social responsibility at the heart of everything it does, using its position as a leading studio to champion the wider UK animation and children’s content sector through hands-on advocacy. This vital work includes Hyatt’s long-standing leadership in securing and defending creative-sector tax credits and co-founding Animation UK, as well as Box’s focused work on developing industry skills and training. Blue Zoo is at the forefront of lobbying for children and the industry, helping lead the national debate on funding, skills, and growth. As a key voice supporting progressive industry initiatives such as The Young Animator of the Year UK Competition, ScreenSkills, NextGen Skills Academy, Animation UK, and the Children’s Media Foundation, Blue Zoo is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the future of animation and children’s programming for a healthier ecosystem across the country.

BAFTA is committed to supporting children’s programming and inspiring the next generation of talent. In 2025, the Academy introduced three new children’s categories to its annual BAFTA Television and BAFTA TV Craft Awards, and a new children’s and family category for the BAFTA Film Awards.

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