Aaliyah Hussain, a 2025 graduate from Arts University Bournemouth, won Purbeck Film Festival’s short film competition.
Her short film ‘Michelle Is Feeling Subpar’ recieved the student prize at the 29th edition of the film festival.
The film revolves around a Michelin star chef called Michelle who has recently moved to New York and is struggling to set into her surroundings.
Michelle becomes stressed out by her job, trying to perfect her recipes whilst also worrying about her neighbour, Nelly, she didn’t make an effort with.
Hussain said: “Essentially, everything goes wrong and the neighbour comes in and offers her shoulder to lean on. It’s more about showing the value of friendship, especially when you’re in a new place and when you don’t really know what you’re doing and how valuable it is to you.”
The film uses stop motion, a style of animation which uses models and objects that are manipulated frame by frame to create the effect that they are moving.
It was a technique that she discovered after trying a workshop when she returned to her second year of studies, feeling a lack of confidence in her drawing abilities.
She instantly connected with stop motion, explaining that she loves how she loves the human element behind it.
“It just feels so real and human. Because [the film] is such a human story, to have puppets that look more organic and you can feel every imperfection in the puppets face and body, it adds to the organicness of the film. It makes it feel more like real humans have made it behind it.” She said said.
The themes of loneliness, connection and friendship which the short film explores stems from Hussain’s own experiences of moving from Birmingham to Bournemouth for university.
Hussain said: “I hadn’t made many friends. I wasn’t the most sociable person. I found it really hard to like speak to people. I think it was inspired by that, the feeling of like loneliness in a new place and like how I wanted to make connections so hard, but I physically couldn’t because I was so nervous.
“I just had this idea like how nice it would be if someone just gives you a chance almost or like makes the first step towards you and how far that can go. It’s crazy because when we did that, when I started making this film, I didn’t really have many friends in the year and by some miracle the film almost became real.”
She worked alongside fellow AUB students Rachel Smith, Emma Mackenzie, Angelica Hirabe and Karyn Brooks on the film.
Hussain was grateful for the friendships formed during the filmmaking process:
“The things that were happening in the film sort of mimicked itself in real life. For Michelle, when everything goes wrong and Nelly just silently comes and helps her, that was happening in real life as well between me and Rachel or me and Karen or Angie or Emma. It was just really lovely to see because over the year, now I’m actually on the course with two of the people on the film. It’s like friendships that have lasted so long because of this film, which is a really nice thing.”
For Hussain and her crew, winning the student prize filled them all with a newfound confidence.
“It was reassuring that stop motion and model making is what me and my teammates, who were also feeling self-conscious about our own practice, are supposed to be doing. We are supposed to be making models, making film, making animations, bringing stories to life. It energised me.” She added
Following on from her success with stop motion, Hussain is now studying model making at the National Film and TV School in Beaconsfield, one of the world’s top film schools.
Notable stop motion alumni of the school includes Nick Park, who created Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run.
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