Bird Drone
An animated short film
37 Official Selections
16 Awards
2 Academy Award Qualifying Festival Selections
A lonely seagull looking for love struggles to accept that his newfound object of affection is a human-operated drone with a limited battery life.
“An animation that keeps things simple, well and truly gets you in the feels and for the first time ever, you’ll be rooting for a seagull to steal someone’s chips.”
— Jacked In
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
1) Warsaw International Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland, 6-15 Oct 2023 (Academy Award Qualifying Festival)
2) ReelOzInd! Australia Indonesia Short Film Competition & Festival, Melbourne & Yogjakarta, Australia & Indonesia, 19 Oct 2023
3) Joy House Film Festival, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 12 Nov 2023
4) Seoul Animal Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea, 19-23 Oct 2023
5) CURTAS Festival do Imaxinario de Vilagarcía de Arousa (51st Edition), Pontevedra, Spain, 27 Oct - 5 Nov 2023
6) 35th Girona Film Festival, Girona, Spain, 6-12 Nov 2023
7) Give Peace a Screen, Torino, Italy, 19-22 Oct 2023
8) Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
9) Byron Bay International Film Festival, NSW, Australia, 20-29 Oct 2023
10) Tangier Film Festival, Tangier, Morocco, 1-4 Nov 2023
11) Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival, Claremore Oklahoma, USA, 2-4 Nov 2023
12) BaiDefest Roses, Girona, Spain, 16-19 Nov 2023
13) Red Rose Film Festival, Lancaster, Pensylvannia, 3-4 Nov 2023 (Nominee, Best Film)
14) International Environment Film Festival Massa Wassay, Agadir, Morocco, 18 Nov 2023
15) 22nd Almería International Film Festival, Almeria, Spain, 17-26 Nov 2023
16) Animacción, La Coruna, Spain, 23-28 Oct 2023
17) Festival FantÀstik Granollers, Barcelona, Spain, 21-26 Nov 2023
18) AniMate - Australia Animation Film Festival, Sydney, Australia, 3 Mar 2024 (Finalist)
19) 4º Festival Internacional De Cortometrajes Cine Mundo 2023, Rio Negro, Argentina, 11 Nov 2023
20) Foyle Film Festival, Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK, 17-26 Nov 2023 (Academy Award Qualifying Festival)
21) Blende Eins - Shortfilmfest Wilhelmshaven, Germany, 21 Oct 2023
22) El Festival Cortos para Tiempos Largos, Risaralda, Colombia, 25-28 Oct 2023
23) Animae Caribe International Animation & Digital Media Festival, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, 25 October 2023
24) Raw Science Film Festival, California, USA, 26 Oct 2023 (Finalist)
25) 19° Festival Internacional de Cine de Rengo 2023, Rengo, Chile, 20-25 Nov 2023
26) Robotic Online Short Film Festival (ROS Film Festival), Alicante, Spain 15-27 Nov 2023
27) Tunja International Film Festival - FICTU, Boyaca, Colombia, 9-13 Nov 2023
28) Caracas Movie Critics` Film Festival, Caracas, Venezuela, 22-30 Nov 2023
29) Alumbra, festival of Film and Short Films, City of Hellin (Festival Internacional de Cine de Hellín (Albacete) "ALUMBRA"), Spain, 26 Nov - 1 Dec 2023
30) White Rose International Film Festival, England, UK, 9 Dec 2023 (Nominee Best Director, Best Original Music, Best Sound Design)
31) 3rd Bornova Short Film Days, Izmir, Turkey, 15-17 Dec 2023
32) WA Screen Culture Awards, Perth, Australia, 26 Nov 2023 (Nominee Best Short Film/Animation; Best Cinematography; Best Writing)
33) Le Matiné Audiovisual Festival, Cordoba, Colombia, 9-11 Nov 2023
34) Festival Cortos Rodinia, Valladolid, Spain, 20-30 Nov 2023
35) Ànima Jove, Festival Internacional de Curtmetratges d’Animació d’Altafulla, Tarragona, Spain, 27an 2024
36) Utsav International Film Festival, Maharashtra, India, 14-17 Dec 2023
37) International ShortFilm Festival Vitafest, Santiago, Chile 13-18 Nov 2023
AWARDS
1) Best Animation - ReelOzInd! Australia Indonesia Short Film Competition & Festival, Melbourne & Yogjakarta, Australia & Indonesia, 19 Oct 2023
2) Gold (Best Animation) - Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
3) Gold (Keith Thomas - Best Sound Design) - Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
4) Silver (Clare Toonen - Best Idea) Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
5) Bronze (Best Film) - Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
6) Bronze (Clare Toonen - Best Screenplay) - Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
7) Bronze (Best Comedy) - Film Olympiad, Greece, Oct 2023
8) Best Animation (Animal Life) - 4º Festival Internacional De Cortometrajes Cine Mundo 2023, Rio Negro, Argentina, 11 Nov 2023
9) Best Animation - Blende Eins - Shortfilmfest Wilhelmshaven, Germany, 21 Oct 2023
10) Best Animation (Block E) - White Rose International Film Festival, England, UK, Nov 2023
11) Best Original Music (Block E) - White Rose International Film Festival, England, UK, Nov 2023
12) Runners Up Best Sound Design (Block E) - White Rose International Film Festival, England, UK, Nov 2023
13) Best Animation - Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival, Claremore Oklahoma, USA, 2-4 Nov 2023
14) Big Crinoline Award (Top Film of the Festival) - Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival, Claremore Oklahoma, USA, 2-4 Nov 2023
15) Coles Best Film (Top Film of the Festival) - Joy House Film Festival, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 12 Nov 2023
16) Best Screenplay - International Environment Film Festival Massa Wassay, Agadir, Morocco, 18 Nov 2023
COUNTRIES PLAYED IN (20)
Argentina, Australia, Chile, Colombia, England (UK), Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Northern Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies), Turkey, Poland, USA, Venezuela
CONTINENTS PLAYED IN (6)
Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America
CREW
Radheya Jegatheva - Director, Animator, Editor
Hannah Ngo - Producer
Clare Toonen - Writer
Jay Jay Jegathesan - Assoc. Producer, Festival Manager
Wil Hughes - Music
Keith Thomas - Sound Design
Bradley Slabe - Script Editor
Craig Allister Young - Cellist
Kate Moon - Character Design
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Bird Drone centres around love, in both the story itself and the creation of the film. A labour of love over the last few years, it is a heartfelt story about the human emotions connected with unrequited love, explored through two peculiar and unusual entities - a lonely seagull and a human-operated drone. Our hero seagull’s attraction is one-sided, and the dichotomy of the natural and the unnatural, the autonomous and the controlled, results in love that is completely unobtainable. It was extremely important to me that this was reflected in the art direction and visual style, using a combination of 2D and 3D animation techniques to mirror the relationship between the organic seagull and the synthetic drone.
Naturally, a wordless story between a bird and a drone lends itself to animation. I have a passion for animation, and I consider the film to be a love letter to the works of Studio Ghibli and Pixar, whose movies I grew up with and helped shape my love of cinema. In 2018, I won an opportunity to visit Pixar animation studios and was fortunate enough to meet the producer of Academy-Award winning animated short Piper, Marc Sondheimer, where they specially screened his film for me in an in-house theatre. It captivated me the whole way through, and reinforced in me one of many reasons why I adore animation - being able to communicate human feelings and emotions creatively through non-human characters, something that is much harder to recreate in live-action. The attention to detail and level of craftsmanship involved in Piper was really inspiring, and continued to be as this project came into being, especially as another animated film about birds by the beach! Aesthetically, there are also several nods to Miyazaki’s works and visual style throughout. In the end, Bird Drone took me almost three years to complete.
The film captures the feeling of pursuing someone who can never want you back, but being so blinded by love that you can’t help but continue to desire - even at your own detriment. However it’s also about the bittersweetness of moving on - as one should not dwell on unrequited love - and showing that something that ultimately does not work out can lead to bigger and better things. But I love how it is more than that too, and I feel that it may grow increasingly relevant with time - exploring sub-themes of the impact of technology and humanity on nature. I also see it as a metaphor for authentic human interaction in regards to the growing consumption and availability of artificial intelligence.
I fell in love with the idea when Clare and Hannah initially approached me about the film years ago, and I feel very grateful that they entrusted me with directing and animating the film. It was so rewarding to work with them and to build our friendship, and I’m very proud of what we’ve created over our journey for the last few years.