RTS Award for Animated Documentary

Here at Studio Panda HQ we have long be advocates of the potential power that animated documentary holds as a genre. We really believe that the freedom animation brings and the emotion it can create could be a key tool in telling the most thought provoking and moving of stories.

We were absolutely delighted, therefore, to have been awarded the RTS Award in the category of Best Animation for our short form documentary about the inspiring life of Mary Anning, animated in stop frame sand art. Not only have RTS shown their support of this new and exciting genre of Animated Documentary, they have shined a light on how brilliant and imagination-inspiring sand animation can be.

Going up against big budget Netflix productions was pretty daunting, but we we’re thrilled to come away with the award. The night itself was great fun, with all the extended team there to enjoy the moment with us.

We are hoping that this award will show some of the big industry players in the documentary world that animation is a new and exciting way to tell stories that are simply not possible through archive and interviews. It allows you to explore areas that are hard to talk about through conventional methods, giving the subject an extra level of anonymity. It also means that you can create content to represent moments in history that we’re never recorded to tell the story to a whole new generation.

Thanks to our growing relationship with the BBC and BBC Ideas, we have already started work on the next commission in our female history series exploring the harrowing and heart-breaking story of Eva Kor and her incredible message of forgiveness after her experiences at Auschwitz during the war.

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Click here to see the film that won the award or here to read more about how we made it.

If you have any ideas for great stories that need to be heard, get in touch to discuss. We’d love to hear from you.