UWE students’ stop-motion animation ‘The Big Top’ screening at film festivals in UK and internationally

A short film made by third-year Animation students has been accepted into fourteen film festivals this year. ‘The Big Top’ was created by Julia Henauer, Lily Goodwin, Cleo Parker, and Ruby Black as part of their second year collaboration module, for which they had to make a short film for children.  

The film sees an eager audience welcoming circus perfomer Pongolee ‘Pong’ the Pangolin and her assistant Shelley the snail, who present their newest trick.  

The team said, ‘We are so excited that our film made it all around the world. When we started this project, none of us ever thought that our film would get this far. We had so much fun on this project and we really appreciate that other people recognise that, and that different cultures understand our comedy.’ 

 ‘We produced the whole film during lockdown. Which was quite the challenge, but we worked really well as a team. That’s also why we decided to work together on our 3rd year film, which we are currently working on now, aiming to release in Spring 2022.’ 

Julia Bracegirdle, Senior Lecturer in Animation, said ‘We’re all immensely proud, but not at all surprised that this film has been accepted in so many festivals around the world. Lily, Ruby, Cleo and Julia made a fantastic team, and I’m delighted that they’re working together again on a new stop-motion project.’  

The film is available to watch here.