In case you hadn't noticed, the halls are decked, the mistletoe is hanging and the candy canes are calling our names!

It's that time of the year, when the festive spirit fills the air, and we at Brown Bag Films want to take a moment to extend our warmest wishes to you—our incredible animation community. This time of year is a reminder of the magic and creativity that surrounds us, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the many memorable milestones we've shared together this year.

We kicked off the year with a flurry of Kidscreen Awards nominations for Get Rolling with Otis, Ada Twist, Scientist, and Karma’s World and continued this streak with NAACP Image Awards nominations for Eureka! and Karma's World, 6 Irish Animation Awards nominations which included a win for Karma's World, 2 Nominations in the YMA Awards of Excellence, an Annie Award nomination and a NAMIC Vision Awards nomination for Karma's World, an Irish HR Champion Awards nomination for our stellar Learning & Development programme, a Canadian Screen Awards win for Let’s Go Luna!, 3 nominations in the TCA Awards for Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Eva the Owlet, and Ridley Jones!

Karma's World was also selected to receive the Award of Honor at the 2023 Japan Prize awards ceremony which was accepted by our very own Director Bronagh O'Hanlon IN Japan. But wait, that's not all! To wrap up the year in a nice, wonderful bow, we received 16 nominations for both our series and service shows at this year’s Children’s & Family Emmy® Awards AND placed 4th in Production in the Kidscreen Hot50!

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We also saw new season and episode drops of Eureka! on Disney, Ridley Jones, Ada Twist, Scientist and StoryBots: Answer Time on Netflix, Wild Kratts on PBS KIDS along with a Sago Mini Friends Earth Day Special on Apple TV+, as well as launches for an incredible slate of exciting new shows— the first of which, Eva the Owlet, swooped onto Apple TV+, followed by our homegrown 2D animated preschool comedy Lu & The Bally Bunch which is available on Cartoonito (UK), CBC (Canada), TVNZ+ (New Zealand) and RTE (Ireland)! Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures premiered on PBS KIDS in October continuing the legacy of the original Super Why! series for a new generation of super readers and new 2D animated series Open Season: Call of Nature also recently launched on Discovery Kids (Brazil, Latin America) and Family Channel (Canada)!

It has been really amazing to see these shows take to the screen and we're so thrilled to see the worldwide reception they've received so far.

And along with the launch of many new and returning series, we’re also very excited for you to meet some of our up-and-coming characters who are ready to spring into the hearts of kids and families around the world, including Dee & Friends in Oz, which is launching on Netflix in 2024 and Dylan's Playtime Adventures, which is set to premiere this coming Spring on CBC Kids.

Another major milestone for our properties was celebrating the arrival of the Karma’s World Happy Meal at McDonald’s! The Karma's World Happy Meal was an exciting collaboration lead by our 9 Story family consumer products team along with the world's leading food service retailer, and marked McDonald's first-ever GLOBAL digital activation that took the stage in restaurants across 42 countries.

You can check out the advert below which was animated in our Dublin studio, by our amazing team led by Karma's World Director Bronagh O'Hanlon.The 30 second promo brings Karma and friends together to create a version of the iconic McDonalds ‘Ba da ba ba ba’ track in their own signature style.

2023 also saw our team engage enthusiastically with a slew of in-person animation and community events as they took part in panels, gave talks, ran workshops and represented the studio across each of our locations at events like Animation Dingle, TAAFI Film Festival, TAAFIxCASO Job Fair, Sheridan Animation Industry Day, Community Games Arts & Cultural Weekend, Culture Night, National Gallery of Ireland's Creative Careers Week, Culture Crush, and Ottawa International Animation Festival. Our Bali team also set off on an intrepid Brown Bag Films Bali College Roadshow engaging with over 13 colleges across Indonesia to discuss studio life and opportunities in the industry!

Our studio committees also knocked it out of the park organising a whole host of fantastic activities throughout the year which included another rollout of our bookgifting initiative Bookbag which we launched at Gaelscoil Phádraig with Children’s Books Ireland, fundraising for the Equinox Charity Cycle and the YMA Charity Ball Brawl.

From the bustling creativity of our studios to the captivating stories that have leaped off our screens, it’s been a year filled with inspiration, imagination, and innovation. And none of it would have been possible without the amazing work being done by our incredible teams across Dublin, Toronto and Bali as well as all of your support, passion, and enthusiasm.

AND DRUMROLL PLEASE, next year marks the studio's 30th year in business and we simply can't wait to celebrate this EPIC milestone with you all!

Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting us throughout the last twelve months – here’s to a new year filled with even more stories, memories, and shared moments that inspire and connect us.

Thank you for being a part of our journey, and from all of us here at Brown Bag Films and all of the 9 Story Media Group family we want to wish you all Happy Holidays!