Twiggy’s powerful film, explaining how trees can help with flooding and climate change has won an international prize!
‘Wood You Believe It‘ claimed the ‘IPST Education Award‘ as part of the Goethe Institute’s ‘Science Film Festival‘ 2025. More than 1,500 films from 110 countries were submitted to the festival, and 123 films were selected for competition so she’s really done us proud coming home with the win. The festival has a global audience of over 500,000, with these films being used in primary and secondary schools and shown in 23 countries across Asia, Africa and South America.
“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. Her cheerful, expressive voice actually belongs to a real expert working in the field, and the character animator used this as a great foundation for adding bags of extra personality through physical performance.
“The filming … was done by a small crew of fabulous people, all committed to sharing the important information around flooding, climate and protecting our natural habitats for future generations. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!”
– Cadi Catlow, Director of Wood You Believe It
The short film is one of a series of four engaging and informative Creature Comforts-style animations, created to show how natural flood management can help protect homes, businesses and farms and assist in the fight against climate change. They are the result of an Environment Agency-funded collaboration with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria Innovation Flood Resilience (CiFR).
‘Natural flood management‘ is a catch-all term for a variety of landscaping techniques (many of which we’re deploying here at Wild Haweswater) used to hold water back during flood events, which reduce the impact downstream on communities and infrastructure such as bridges. The films demonstrate how these techniques can also reduce the impact of climate change and improve water quality.
“I had an idea of how to reach the public to explain natural flood management during lockdown which was to create a series of simple and engaging animated films to tell our story.
“I wrote the films over a few months, by which time I was working on the CiFR project. My aim was to try and make the films as impactful as possible in the three to four minutes we had.
“The overall impact of these films has been really heartening for me and all my colleagues who contributed their knowledge and experience; we’re all really proud of what we’ve achieved, and it’s terrific to recognised by such a brilliant festival.”
– The Environment Agency’s David Kennedy who was the scriptwriter and producer for the film (also the voice of Twiggy’s sidekick Gregory the Woodpecker) explains the first series of films creation process began during Covid
If you haven’t yet watched it, ‘Wood You Believe It‘ features Twiggy, a Cumbrian red squirrel, as our guide. She explains the incredible range of benefits that trees provide in reducing the impacts of flooding, drought and heat, as well as their other amazing advantages for wildlife and in trapping and storing carbon.
Twiggy is voiced by our own Annabel Rushton who is the RSPB’s People and Partnerships Manager here at Wild Haweswater. Indeed, the voiceovers for all the films in the series were done by local people working in various sectors including flood reduction, conservation, farming and water quality, and all showcase natural flood management methods being done right here in Cumbria.
“It’s absolutely incredible that Twiggy’s film ‘Wood You Believe It’ has won this international award. The film has been around the globe this year, including at Annecy Film Festival (which is like the Oscars for animations), and the UK’s most prestigious Manchester Animation Festival, so winning this Education Award is the icing on the cake of a fantastic year. I’m so proud of this little Red Squirrel sharing such an important message far and near.”
– RSPB’s People and Partnerships Manager for Wild Haweswater, Annabel Rushton
‘Wood You Believe It’ is one of 4 films in the second of two series called ‘Even Wilder Ideas About Flooding’. The first series ‘Wild Ideas About Flooding’ also won an award at the BFI’s Learning on Screen Awards in 2023.
“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. 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.”
– Graham Jackson-Pitt, Director of Nature Recovery at Cumbria Wildlife Trust who are a main partner in the films.
Watch Twiggy and all the other films in both series here.
– Blog by Annabel Rushton, RSPB People and Partnerships Manager for Wild Haweswater. Posted Wednesday 7 January 2026
