Another BAFTA success for Hollie

For the second year in succession Gibraltarian singer songwriter Hollie Buhagiar has formed part of a winning team at the BAFTAs. Hollie Buhagiar, as part of the production team of ‘Poles Apart, again won the Best British short animation award at this year’s BAFTAs.

The 71st British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, was held on Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall to honour the best national and foreign films.

“It feels great, it's a really prestigious award and it's brilliant that the film is receiving the recognition that it absolutely deserves,” said Hollie from London on Sunday night on attending the BAFTA ceremony hosted for the first time by Joanna Lumley notching up more than four million viewers - peaking at 4.6 on BBC1.

Last year Hollie recorded the vocals for another BAFTA Short Film winning film "A Love Story”.

This year “Poles Apart” for which she wrote the score to the whole film with a track which is feature in the end credits was up against two other films – Have Heart and Mamoon.

Poles Apart is a stop motion animation short that tells the story of an unlikely meeting between Nanuk, a tough female polar bear, and Aklak, an enthusiastic male grizzly bear, brought together by their changing habitats. The lack of food in a melting Arctic has left the solitary Nanuk desperately hungry.

When the hopeful and eager Aklak crashes into Nanuk's world, she has to decide if the naïve grizzly bear is her food or her friend.

The project, said Miss Buhahuiar, was a pleasure to work on and it was wonderful to be part of such a great creative team.
Graduating from the NFTS last year she is currently freelancing in London as a film, TV and games composer.

Passionate about working within film and writing for animation, she says, this is a very exciting area.

“There's a lot of experimentation and discovery that can come with these films sonically and I've also always had a soft spot for stop motion, so this project was such a delight to be a part of.”