Often companies nominated for awards face a nail-biting wait to find out if they are winners.
But for Marsden-based Fettle Animation a prestigious award at the Royal Television Society Yorkshire Programme Awards is guaranteed – because they scooped all three nominations in the Best Animation category.
The awards are held in Leeds on Friday October 7 and for Kath Shackleton and Zane Whittingham, producer and director at Fettle Animation, it’s the perfect way to celebrate Fettle’s 10th birthday.
Zane said: “It can sometimes be a bit nerve-wracking attending an award ceremony but this time we know we can’t lose!
“It will be a great night out for us hobnobbing with the great and good of Yorkshire’s TV but it’s also an important occasion for the causes our animations represent.
“It’s an honour when organisations doing really important work trust us to create animations on their behalf.
“All three animations nominated this year focus on issues that we care passionately about and we hope that the recognition and our success at this event helps them in their work.”
Fettle received nominations for three short animations:
Modern Slavery Awareness Animation – a four-minute animation raising awareness of modern slavery produced with West Yorkshire Police’s Anti-Slavery partnership comprising of international anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice, Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Donate to the Welcome Centre Food Bank – a two-minute animation highlighting the important work of Huddersfield’s food bank The Welcome Centre, narrated by award winning folk singer Heidi Tidow.
Democracy Happens Where You Are – a two-minute animation, part of a series of animations made for Kirklees Democracy Commission and Kirklees Council aimed at getting communities more involved in democracy and local decision making.
Fettle Animation have a long history of tackling big issues in their punchy 2D animations. Among their previous work was ‘Children of the Holocaust’, a series of animated interviews with Holocaust survivors for BBC Learning which led to Kath and Zane being flown to New York to speak at the United Nations.
In 2019 their animations were turned into a popular graphic novel “Survivors of the Holocaust” which has since been translated for French, Italian and Dutch editions.
Fettle have won multiple awards including two BAFTA nominations, a Japan Prize and a Sandford St Martin’s Children’s Award for this work.
Kath said: “The three videos nominated this year address three of the biggest issues of our time – the cost-of-living crisis, modern slavery and democracy.
“At Fettle we love getting our teeth into big topics, finding ways to communicate complex ideas in engaging, lively animations.
“We’re celebrating our 10th birthday this year and we’re going to keep trying to change the world, one animation frame at a time!”
See more of Fettle’s stunning animations at https://fettleanimation.com/folio/