About this submission

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.

Unrequited love is so universal, and this film was a way for me to tap into my own feelings and experiences of one-sided love through non-human characters. The concept is inherently bittersweet. I saw the relationship of the natural and the unnatural as way to develop a hybrid animation style of 2D and 3D.

I was drawn to the wordless aspect, as I could focus on visual storytelling. Naturally, a wordless story between a bird and a drone lends itself to animation. I have a passion for animation, and I consider Bird Drone to be a love letter to the works of Studio Ghibli and Pixar, whose films I grew up with and helped shape my love of cinema.


Creator
Radheya Jegatheva is an award-winning writer, director and animator from Perth, Western Australia. Born in Malaysia at the turn of the century, Radheya’s films have garnered 34 Academy Award-qualifying Festival selections. His live-action short ‘Pacing the Pool’ won Best Short Documentary at the BFI Future Film Festival 2023, and was previously shortlisted by the World Health Organisation for the Special Prize for Rehabilitation in the Health for All Film Festival. His short film ‘The Quiet’ was Oscar-qualified, landing on the longlist for the Academy Award for Best Short Animation in 2021. Radheya is passionate about film, and the value of using film and animation in educational and social development contexts. He has spoken to thousands of school students over the years with an aim to encourage young people about being involved in the arts, and his works have been used as an educational tool in schools and universities around the world. He has also animated and contributed to various large-scale multimedia installations and public projects. more...

Join the Discussion