“Hilary worked in an office with a rubber plant and a man whose name she’d forgotten”.

The monologue is Hilary began as a rhyming couplet that I wrote in a graveyard in Cricklewood. The story went through a lot of transformations before the deadline was upon me and I had to settle with the version I had. Mostly the pictures came after the text. I like to think they are not completely superfluous. The models and sets were kept as simple as possible, partly so as not to distract from the monologue, but mostly for financial reasons and because I’m rather lazy. I don’t know how many people understand exactly what the film is about and I’ve always thought it was a bit of a cop-out to say that it doesn’t matter, that viewers can provide their own interpretations. These days it’s important to me that people understand what I’m saying, but when I made Hilary I was more concerned that the whole thing looked grim and sounded funny and that I got to the end of a shot before the set fell down.

1994 Edinburgh Film Festival; London Film Festival; BFI - Mari Kuttner viewing

1995 Angers: Premiers Plans; Montreal, Dublin; Annecy; Oslo; Oxford; Krok; Isfahan, Fantoche, Newcastle; Olympia; Quebec; Festival of European Films, Ankara; Leipzig 38th Intl Fest of Documentary and Animation Films; San Sebastian, Schorndorff; Clermont Ferrand; Brussels Intl Festival of Cartoon & Animated Film

1996 Angers Premiers Plans; British Animation Awards; Rome: Best of Brit Anim., Stuttgart: Intl Fest Anim’d Film;Cardiff International Animation Festival; Zagreb Anim. Fest; Tel Aviv Intl Students Fest; Singapore Anim. Fest; Grimstad KortfilmFest; Umea Film Fest; Coté Court, Saint Denis; Ottawa Int’l Film Festival; Cartoombria, Rome; 5th Short Film Fest Tübingen; Holland Animation Festival: RCA Programme; Corto Imola Film Festival; Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, Sydney

1997 Cleveland Film Festival, 5th Los Angeles International Animation Competition; Valladolid International Film Festival: RCA Retrospective; Festival de Cine de Alcala de Henares; Puppentheatre, Zürich;  Ottawa International Student Animation Festival: RCA Programme; Phat Shorts Film Festival, New York; Minima Cinemal; London

1998 ‘Message to Man’, St Petersburg, Documentary, Short Film and Animation Festival: RCA Programme; Cinema Zita: British Animation Festival, Stockholm

1999 SICAF, Seoul

2000 Singapore Fiesta 2000: RCA Programme
2009 Forum des Images France

1995 Montreal: Jury Commendation, Fantoche: Best First Film, Leizig: Fipresci Jury gave honorary mention

1996 British Animation Awards: Public Choice Awards: Best New Perspectives Film; Ottawa Int’l Film Festival: The Public Prize, Zack Schwartz for Best Story, Chromacolour Prize for Best Student Film;  Flickerfest Film Festival Sydney: Grand Prix and Chapman Student Prize