South Africa's Stick Man wins four awards at Kidscreen Awards

Stick Man

It beat Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer’s Llamas and Bruno & Boots: Go Jump in the Pool to win Best One-Off, Special or TV Movie for Kids. The 26-minute short film also took home Best Direction for Jeroen Jaspaert and South African co-director Daniel Snaddon; Best Music; and Best Design, making it the most awarded animation on the night.

Animated in Cape Town, Stick Man is an adaptation of the bestselling picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo). It premiered on BBC One at Christmas 2015 and is currently streaming on ShowMax.

"Stick Man lives in the family tree with Stick Lady Love and their stick children three," until he is taken further and further away from home on an epic adventure across the seasons. He runs from a playful dog, is thrown in a river, escapes from a swan’s nest and even ends up on top of a fire, as he tries to get back to his family in time for Christmas.

Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) voices Stick Man, with Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as Santa and Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) as the narrator.

Second, third Christmas collaborations with BBC One

Triggerfish’s second BBC One Christmas collaboration with Magic Light Pictures, Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, will have its African premiere on 2 March 2017 at the Artscape in collaboration with Cape Town International Animation Festival and Design Indaba, less than a week after its international festival premiere as the opening night film at New York International Children’s Film Festival. It will also screen on 4 March 2017 at the Labia as part of the Cape Town International Animation Festival.

Coinciding with the one hundredth anniversary of Dahl’s birth, Revolting Rhymes combines the classic fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella, serving them with a mischievous twist. The two short films are directed by Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer, both former Annecy winners and Oscar nominees. Britain’s Daily Mirror called Revolting Rhymes “the best thing I watched all Christmas,” while The Guardian hailed it as “a treat.”

Triggerfish is currently underway on a third BBC One Christmas collaboration with Magic Light Pictures, The Highway Rat, another Donaldson/Scheffler adaptation.

Find out about Stick Man's win at Annecy last year here. To view the Stick Man promo, click here and to view the Revolting Rhymes promo, click here.