An animated Cumbrian film - which shows how trees can reduce flood risk and combat climate change - has won an international prize.
'Wood You Believe It' is a Creature Comforts-style film telling the story of a squirrel called Twiggy.
The short Cumbrian film has now won the IPST Education Award at the 2025 Science Film Festival, organised by the Goethe Institute.
Cadi Catlow, director of Wood You Believe It, said: "Making this film was an absolute joy for me because it combined two of my personal passions – wildlife and research.
"Twiggy the Red Squirrel was built as a life-sized, anatomically-correct puppet with a huge amount of attention to detail … though her face was gently worked into a slightly cartoonish direction around the eyes and mouth to help with the animation.
"Her cheerful, expressive voice actually belongs to a real expert working in the field, and the character animator used this as a great foundation for adding bags of extra personality through physical performance."
The film forms part of a wider project funded by the Environment Agency and developed in partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Cumbria Innovation Flood Resilience (CiFR) project.
It is one of a series of four animations designed to show how natural flood management in Cumbria can protect homes, businesses and farms and assist in the fight against climate change.
Twiggy is voiced by Annabel Rushton, people and partnerships manager for the RSPB, based at Wild Haweswater near Penrith.
Ms Rushton said: "It’s absolutely incredible that Twiggy’s film ‘Wood You Believe It’ has won this international award.
"The film has been around the globe this year, including at Annecy Film Festival (which is like the Oscars for animations), and the UK’s most prestigious Manchester Animation Festival, so winning this Education Award in Thailand is the icing on the cake of a fantastic year.
"I’m so proud of this little Red Squirrel sharing such an important message far and near."
Natural flood management is a catch-all term for a variety of landscaping techniques used to hold water back during flood events, which reduce the impact downstream on communities and infrastructure such as bridges.
The films demonstrate how these techniques can also reduce the impact of climate change and improve water quality.
David Kennedy from the Environment Agency was scriptwriter and producer for the film and also voiced Gregory the Woodpecker.
He explained the origins of the first series of animations.
Mr Kennedy said: "I had an idea of how to reach the public to explain natural flood management during lockdown, which was to create a series of simple and engaging animated films to tell our story.
"I wrote the films over a few months, by which time I was working on the CiFR project.
"My aim was to try and make the films as impactful as possible in the three to four minutes we had.
"The overall impact of these films has been really heartening for me and all my colleagues who contributed their knowledge and experience; we’re all really proud of what we’ve achieved, and it’s terrific to recognised by such a brilliant festival."
The full cast of voiceovers is made up of local people working in various sectors including flood reduction, conservation, farming and water quality.
Graham Jackson-Pitt, director of nature recovery at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: "Congratulations to the filmmakers of Wood You Believe It for this great accolade; winning this Science Film Festival award will bring the benefits of natural flood management to a much wider audience.
"Cumbria Wildlife Trust is working hard with local landowners, farmers and partners across Cumbria to make our landscape more resilient to the impacts of the climate crisis, including flooding and drought."
'Wood You Believe It' was one of 123 finalists out of more than 1,500 entries and has been screened at 25 festivals worldwide.
It is part of the ‘Even Wilder Ideas About Flooding’ series, following the earlier ‘Wild Ideas About Flooding’ animations, which won a BFI Learning on Screen Award in 2023.
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