ROUGHHOUSE - JONATHAN HODGSON (2018)

Written and directed by Jonathan Hodgson, Roughhouse won the BAFTA for Best Short Animation in 2019. As ever with animated shorts, I can only really appraise the storytelling and not the animation itself so... It starts with some casual animal cruelty by three Birmingham (UK) boys; then tells the story of these three unlikeable friends as they travel to art college in Liverpool and befriend a law student who encourages them to bully one of their number when he stops contributing to the rent. This leads to the bullied man considering suicide. Apart from touching on male suicide, I have no idea why this story is considered worthy of a BAFTA. Interestingly, this short anmation was promoted by vimeo, whereas Granddad Was A Romantic (which I prefer) was not.