Leading UK animation studio Aardman announced the appointment of industry veteran Sarah Cox as creative executive director on 9 February, 2017. The announcement, which became immediately effective, was made by Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton.
Cox will oversee the development of a new slate of Aardman intellectual properties aimed at kids and family audiences across all platforms including digital and broadcast. The projects to be commissioned will focus on the company’s signature humorous character-driven stories with global brand recognition.
Cox will spearhead efforts to foster new creative talent and keep the company at the forefront of innovative content development, which includes the upcoming slate that will combine Aardman’s storytelling, character and comedy expertise with a variety of visual styles.
Aardman, co-founder and creative director, Peter Lord, said; “I’m simply delighted that Sarah is joining Aardman at this very exciting time. With her flair for developing and mentoring creative people, she’s the perfect person to drive some terrific new projects. At Aardman, we love creating characters, telling stories, and delivering them with wit and irreverent humour, and I’m thrilled to have Sarah along for the adventure.”
“I am delighted to be offered this unique opportunity to help develop the creative concepts that will ultimately shape the future content of such an inspirational studio as Aardman,” Cox added. “We have been given a bold and exciting remit to find new characters, innovative concepts and creative talent that will continue to produce the top quality humour filled content that the studio is known and loved for. I am a long-time admirer of the collaborative spirit and ethos of Aardman and I am really looking forward to becoming part of that team.”
Prior to joining Aardman, Cox was the owner and creative director of ArthurCox, an award-winning film and animation production company, which she launched in 2002 alongside Sally Arthur. During this time, she established a close working relationship with Aardman, collaborating with the studio as a commercials and short film director. She directed the award winning film, The Itch of the Golden Nit in 2011, which was created under BAFTA-Award winning Tate Movie Project, with the participation of 34,000 children across the UK. She also co-directed the road safety mini-series The Peculiar Adventures of Hector, which won a British Animation Award and the environmental stop-motion short film Don’t Let It All Unravel, which won multiple awards and played at numerous festivals.
Most recently, Cox created and directed the BAFTA-nominated animation pre-school series Nina Needs to Go! for Disney Junior and the educational BAFTA-nominated online series Search It Up – Azoomee. Her short film, Heavy Pockets was also nominated for BAFTA’s Best Short Animation Award in 2004.
She produced and nurtured a series of shorts including Emma Lazenby’s BAFTA award winning Mother of Many and Matthew Walker’s acclaimed short John and Karen. As part of the iFeatures scheme, in 2014, she produced her first live action feature film 8 Minutes Idle, directed by Mark Simon Hewis.
Before establishing Arthur Cox, Cox was at Picasso Pictures from 1994 to 2002, where she directed several commercials for major brands including Virgin Megastores, Sanatogen and Boots No7.
