Bafta-winning animator inspired by Great Yarmouth home

Ross Stringer made a short speech as he accepted the Bafta award

The director of a Bafta-winning film has said it was inspired by his childhood in a seaside town.

Ross Stringer, who grew up in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, collected the award for British Short Animation for the film Crab Day.

He said he was "shaking the whole time" when he had to go on the stage to accept the British Academy honour.

Mr Stringer said the 11-minute animation was "just a love letter to seaside towns and small-town folk."

The story of Crab Day is told without narration or dialogue

Mr Stringer, alongside Bartosz Stanislawek and Aleksandra Sykulak, scooped the award at the 77th annual British Academy Awards on Sunday.

It tells the story of a young boy who must kill his first crab as part of a fishing community's annual ritual and to gain his father's approval.

There is no narration or dialogue.

Mr Stringer, who made the film while studying at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, said: "It's based on my family and how I grew up in Great Yarmouth.

"I spent a lot of time in Great Yarmouth during the conception of this film, and it really is just a love letter to seaside towns and small-town folk."

The seaside town of Great Yarmouth inspired Ross Stringer to make Crab Day

He added that the boy in the film was based on himself, and the dad on his own father.

"Our main character decides not to kill his crab and befriend it instead," he said.

"We wanted this to be an emotional story because it's personal to me - my relationship with masculinity growing up, how I wanted to remain kind and sensitive."

He said his father "didn't cry at the first viewing [of the film], I think that's because there were people around, but he did text me afterwards and said 'I'm crying', so that's a win for me."

Ross Stringer and his team accepted the award for best British short animation

He said the awards night was "so strange".

"On the red carpet, there was Robert Downey Jnr going that way, I was behind Cillian Murphy in the queue to get my photo taken," he said.

"It was just so surreal."