N-E team to attend US film festival

Their animation film, Emily and the Baba Yaga, will be shown at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival - the largest of its kind in the world.

The event is so highly regarded that it is attended by representatives from the Academy Awards (the Oscars).

Twenty films which have been screened at the LA festival have gone on to be nominated for an Oscar - and the last six have won the top gong.

Emily and the Baba Yaga, described as a dark fairytale, was directed by Clive Tonge and produced by Siobhan Fenton - who are animation lecturers at the University of Teesside, in Middlesbrough.

The ten-minute film tells the story of Emily, who lives happily with her father, before a sexy woman makes him fall under her spell.

Emily escapes to the forest, befriends a group of deformed pets and meets Baba Yaga, a cannibalistic hag, who fancies eating Emily for her supper.

Mr Tonge and Ms Fenton, who live in Darlington, have been working on the film project for three years.

They decided to get some practical experience in the industry and brought together a team of former students and experts from the North-East.

Of the 23 people who have contributed to the animation, only two have no links to this region.

Mr Tonge, 39, said: "We knew lots of talented people who were going nowhere, so we decided to do this project, with me as the director and Siobhan as the producer."

They recruited the help of Rachel Mathews, from Newcastle, who wrote the screenplay.

Emily and the Baba Yaga has impressed viewers at festivals in Middlesbrough and Germany and next week it is to be screened at a film festival in Edinburgh.

The animation has been nominated for the Best New British Animation award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Mr Tonge said: "LA and Edinburgh are considered the A-list festivals, we are extremely excited."

They intend to submit the film to 30 festivals worldwide.

Check out a trailer on www.thebabayaga.com