Judging

The judging process

The Animation Competition team at The University of Manchester watches every entry to Animation14, and awards points based on the criteria below. The best-scoring entries go onto a shortlist, and are shown to a panel of external judges, who visit the University for a day in early-May. The judges award points based on the criteria below, and decide the prizes to be awarded.

Meet the judges

The panel of judges for Animation14 are:

  • Simon Duffy, Head of ICT, Manchester Grammar School
  • Claire Garside, Senior Education Consultant, RM Education Ltd
  • Laura Howarth-Kirke, Software Engineer, BBC
  • Donna Johnson, STEM Development Manager, MOSI
  • Julian Sefton-Green, Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Media & Communication, London School of Economics
  • Peter Wenham, Information Assurance Consultant, Trusted Management Ltd

Judging criteria

Entries are judged within their category. There are 8 categories:

  • Age 7-11 (Key Stage 2) – individual or team.
  • Age 11-14 (Key Stage 3) – individual or team.
  • Age 14-16 (Key Stage 4) – individual or team.
  • Age 16-19 (Key Stage 5/studying in sixth form/college) – individual or team.

Each entry is reviewed by a panel of judges, who award points for:

  1. Originality.
  2. Creativity.
  3. Technical quality, use of animation software features
  4. Relevance to the taught curriculum
  5. Overall directorial quality as a movie.

In each category there will be one Winner, and one Runner-Up. Within each category, the judges may also identify entries as “Highly Commended” or “Commended”. Other prizes may also be awarded, at the judges’ discretion. All winning entries will be exhibited at the annual Animation Festival, and displayed in our web galleries. All entrants receive a certificate acknowledging their entry to the competition.

The decisions of the judging panel are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.