Animator eyes top award

12/03/03

Animator eyes top award

A former design student at Kingston University is in line for a BAFTA after being nominated for a Royal Television Society National Student Award.

Sumito Sakakibara, who graduated with a degree in illustration and animation last year, is competing against eight other contenders from around the country for the accolade. Sumito has already won the London regional animation category of the student awards with his short film, 3brothers. Made up of more than 1000 frames, it depicts the imaginary adventures of three brothers and their vision of life.

Sumito is the first to admit the tale is by no means straightforward. "It's presented as a mystery puzzle for the audience to solve."I hope people find it intriguing more than anything," the 23 year old said. Japanese-born Sumito, who is now studying at the Royal College of Art, credits his Kingston University course with giving him the opportunity to develop a boyhood interest in animation. "It really challenged my ideas and enabled me to make films good enough to be broadcast to a professional standard," he said.

Course director Brian Love said Sumito's success was further confirmation that the Kingston degree programme was one of the best in the country. "This accolade underlines our ability to produce work of an internationally-recognised standard and we have every confidence that Sumito can impress the judges in the final," he said. Mr Love is convinced Sumito has a bright future, regardless of whether he walks away with a BAFTA later this month. "He is a natural storyteller and has a tremendous understanding of film-making," Mr Love said.

Sumito isn't the only Kingston graduate to have impressed judges with his work. His former coursemate Mark Kessler was runner-up in the regional round of the student animation awards.