AN award winning filmmaker returned to her university to pick up a trophy for her animated short film.

(CORR) Domareen Fox received the Student Animation Award at the recent Royal Television Society’s Regional Awards but was unable to attend the ceremony because she is working for a German animation studio.

Originally from Skelton, east Cleveland, the filmmaker received the award for Dresslocked, a three minute 2D animation exploring body dysmorphic disorder through the struggles of a young woman who can’t decide what to wear in the morning.

She produced the film as part of her BA (Hons) Computer Character Animation at Teesside University.

Since graduating last year, she is now working as an Art Director for Studio Soi, an animation studio based near Stuttgart in Germany, which has produced the Gruffalo and the Gruffalo’s Child animations.

She said: “This is my ideal job. I was one of those people who came to university knowing exactly what it was that I wanted to do once I graduated.

“At Teesside I got all the support I needed to achieve that goal. The staff were fantastic and the courses I took, not just those that were part of my degree, were wonderful."

She found out about winning the RTS award whilst in a meeting in Germany.

She added: “I was in a review session with some of the artists and I suddenly started getting a lot of messages.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was really lovely to get this recognition.”