UWE Bristol animation students have made a clean sweep of nominations in the animation category of the RTS West of England Student Awards 2014, replicating last year’s success of three out of three nominations in the category.
Three other UWE students have also been nominated in the Drama and Factual categories, with UWE students gaining more than half the nominations overall in this year’s regional RTS Student Awards. 
Nominations in the Animation category this year are Timmy Kwee for his graduation film Bicycle; Sam Whitaker Shaw for the 2D horror comedy Dead and Breakfast and Roos Mattaar for the stop motion and live action composited film MoonBird.
This year could potentially be a double success for Timmy Kwee, who won against the odds last year as a second year student up against graduating students, with his animated film of a musical bug orchestra.
Timmy said: “I have great enthusiasm for animation and I feel very lucky for being able to do what I love. The aim of my final year animated short ‘Bicycle’ was to challenge myself to make good use of the opportunity of a solo project and to show my ability of all stages of production. During the production stages, my tutors gave me useful support from story development to animation technique.
“In the future, I aim to become an animation teacher. I hope with my final animated short, I can inspire my future student in the way I have been inspired by my tutors’ works.”
The other UWE nominees in the RTS Student Awards 2014 are: in the Drama category – ‘Girl Wonder’, Samuel Pek Chai Teo, Hannah Bush Bailey, Steven Chuah Xit Zheng; in the Factual category – ‘The Invisible School’, Hugo Pettitt, Hannah Bush Bailey; and ‘The Final Score’ Heather Paddon, Hannah Bush Bailey, Stephen James Dunn.
Programme leader for animation John Parry said: “As course leader I am hugely impressed by the variety of work produced by UWE Animation students and the range of processes they employ. These short animations contain transcending narratives and messages that reach far beyond the style and techniques that the students have used.
“It is this that makes these works noteworthy, entertaining and gains them festival exhibition and prize nominations. Over the last five years, since the first students graduated from the animation course we have produced a number of prize winners and many of our students have gone on to careers within the industry.”
The Animation Programme has produced a number of award winners in the RTS awards. These include: Tom Mallins (2009) and his retro styled film The Creep; Fell by David Dymond (2011); Mushroom Tea, by Max Martin (2012) and Concert of the Bugs, Timmy Kwee (2013).
The RTS West of England Student Awards will take place on Monday at Watershed from 6pm to 9.30pm.
