Written by Kianna Best on Jan 2, 2025. Posted in Awards and Festivals

UK Screen Alliance CEO Neil Hatton awarded with MBE in New Year Honours

In the final days of 2024, Screen Alliance CEO Neil Hatton was awarded with the prestigious MBE in the King’s New Year Honours List. Announced on 30 December, Hatton has been recognised for his services to visual effects and animation. This honour came as an apt celebration preceding the New Year arrival of the new VFX tax credit championed by Hatton and the UK Screen Alliance members.

Image courtesy of the UK Screen Alliance 

“I’m humbled and thrilled by the news that I have been awarded an MBE,” commented Hatton on the honour. “It’s a real high point, to round out an eventful roller-coaster year, with winning the VFX tax credit in the March Budget, only to have the general election throw it all in doubt, before finally securing it again with the new government in October. It is very gratifying to know that from tomorrow, the UK’s VFX sector will be unleashed to achieve its full potential. I want to show huge appreciation to our UK Screen Alliance and Animation UK members, as this award is also very much in recognition of our magnificent sector and all that they do. Without their commitment to supporting our advocacy mission, none of this would have been possible. Happy new year and happy new tax credit everyone.”

In 2024, Hatton, along with the UK Screen Alliance Members led the way for the call to action to better the VFX tax credit. Prior to the new change, VFX had often been taken elsewhere with projects often “capping out” of the available rebate. After a long campaign, as of 1 January, VFX spending in the UK now attracts a net rebate of 29.25% and is exempt from the overall 80% cap on spending eligible for the Audio Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC).

“Today opens a new chapter in the history of VFX in the UK,” Hatton commented on the arrival of the tax credit. “We already had a reputation for high quality, innovation and creativity. Now, productions will be incentivised to place many more millions of dollars of inward investment work with our award-winning VFX community, creating jobs and considerable value for the UK economy.”

Image courtesy of FOCUS London

CEO Hatton, who has held the leadership position at the UK Screen Alliance since 2016, has been a true advocate and spokesperson for the screen industry, not only being a leading voice in the call for a bettered VFX incentive, but in many other ventures. From Brexit to the actors’ and writers’ strikes, Hatton has continuously shown support, even writing the Covid guidelines for VFX and post production, allowing companies to get back to work quicker and safely.

Since joining the BBC in 1979 as a graduate trainee, Hatton’s career has been non-stop, working in the videotape recording department of the Television Centre for five years, moving to online editor position at Lynx Video , establishing his own non-linear editing facility called Frontier Post, joining the FOCUS Content Advisory Board, and becoming a prime mover of the trade body once known as the UK Post, now, the UK Screen Alliance. In 2023, Neil was appointed to the Creative Industries Council, where he chairs the working group on technical education, where his remit extends across vocational skills for the whole creative sector.