Student Exchange

I loved it! Entertaining, and cleverly thought provoking on several levels. The background music enhances the production and never overwhelms it!

Clear, simple and very entertaining!

just loved it - good pacing and fun plot

From the team behind 2020's National Lockdown Runner-up, "Pupper Paleolithic" we have another excellent animated short. It has a really simple yet effective set-up with two equally bored characters agreeing to a mutual swap, albeit orchestrated by a mischievous spirit. The animation is crisp, clean and colourful, it's well-paced and the music suitably fun. I appreciated too that the expected "Be careful what you wish for" message was given a bit of a twist in the end.

A real shame about the DQ as this would have pushed the other animated entries up and down the country pretty hard.

This was so delightful to watch! Great story with a soundtrack that matches the mood perfectly, well animated and such a great little twist at the end right when you think they might swap back. Absolutely loved it - what a shame about being disqualified!

oh mannnnn how sad I was when I went to vote for you guys as my #1 pick and your name wasn't there :(

This was absolutely stunning, shocking in fact that it was done in 2 days, an absolute highlight of the heats.

Man, no words, just joy and sadness at once.

This was sooooo good!! I was speechless with the professionalism, very solid effort

Love a film that doesn't require dialogue! Easy to understand and a fun watch. Great animation, well paced, and friendly unobtrusive accompanying music to set the tone. A shame about the DQ, was it because there was no 'sign'? (I couldn't spot one)

Absolutely fantastic. Nice wee story and great animation.

Probably one of the more heartbreaking DQ's of my tenure as city manager - it's clear a lot of work and heart went into this film. It looks great, the animation is solid and it's a bizarre-yet-sincere story,

I'm delighted to see more animation in the competition as well, for the first time ever we have a full stack of Best Animation nominations, and rest assured this film would have been on that list too.

The story structure is good - this is important - mainly that there's a conclusive ending/closure to the story. I think this is what solidified the storybook vibe of the piece - and the film really does look like an illustrated kids book come to life.

I was a little confused by the machinations of the plot itself - where did the little demon spirit come from? Did the spider and the boy already know each other? Why did the boy want to swap with a spider specifically? It just feels like a bit of context was missing to a lot of these set-ups, and while ambiguity is cool, these moments were maybe just a touch underdeveloped for me.

Challenge for next year: I mean, make sure you get your film in? It's hard to give you any other definitive challenges because you're already operating at such a high caliber.