Oscars 2022: Welsh film creators surprised at nomination

 

The animation follows the life of Welsh factory worker Beryl

    

   The creators of a short film made in Wales have described their "amazement" at being nominated for an Oscar.

    Joanna Quinn animated Affairs of the Art and Les Mills wrote and produced it.

It took them six years to develop the story about Welsh factory worker Beryl, who loves art.

The Cardiff-based couple told BBC Radio Wales it was "a labour of love" and would be "fantastic" to bring an Oscar home to Wales.

    They will be handed out when the best of the film industry meet for the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood on 27 March.

     Joanna and Les established Beryl Productions in the 1980s and specialise in hand-drawn character animation.

Their 1998 film Wife of Bath was Oscar-nominated and they have also won Emmy and Bafta awards for their work.

It took the couple six years to put the film together

     It took the couple six years to put the film together

"We've been doing it since 1986. We've made three other Beryl films before this one," Les said.

"All of them were made in Wales and they were made with Welsh money, so it's not a new character, but she's a well-loved character.

"She's the epitome of a Welsh working class woman really and we've always kept that kind of quality to her." 

  

The couple watched the Oscar nominations being read out and were shocked when their animation appeared

The couple watched the Oscar nominations live and when they were announced in the Best Animated Short Film category they described being "shocked and over the moon, too".

Joanna said: "The film took six years to make, so it was worth it.

"It's all hand drawn on paper and then scanned into the computer. There are probably about 24,000 drawings."

   

Thecouple have been making animated films for 36 years and its the third Beryl film.


They plan to go the the Oscar ceremony and said it would be "fantastic" to put Wales on the map, with an award.

Joanna added: "We're so excited to just be nominated because that's just brilliant.

"But someone said to me yesterday 'imagine bringing that Oscar back to Wales' and I hadn't actually thought about that and I said "oh my god, wouldn't that just be brilliant?"

The film has also been nominated in the British Short Animation category at this years Baftas.