The short has picked up an international accolade at a major festival, and is a benchmark for environmental messaging.
Wood You Believe It is one of four animated videos produced by Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency, which aim to improve public understanding of climate and ecological issues.
The film, which has been compared to the iconic Creature Comforts animated series, uses a life-size stop-motion model of a Cumbrian red squirrel as its central character. The cute – but endangered – critter is joined by a great spotted woodpecker, and together the pair expound on the importance of woodland and trees for flood defences.
Beautiful visuals, which were inspired by vintage naturalist field sketches, and a concise running time have helped make the film an online success. But it has now also been handed the international IPST Education Award at the Goethe Institute’s Science Film Festival 2025. The event draws an audience of around 500,000 in real life and online.
‘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,’ said director Cadi Catlow.
‘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,’ said Graham Jackson-Pitt, Interim Director of Nature Recovery at Cumbria Wildlife Trust. ‘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.’
Image: Cumbria Wildlife Trust / Environment Agency
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