2025 Student Academy Award Winners Series Part 6: A Sparrow's Song

In ‘A Sparrow's Song’ we follow an elderly widow who finds herself in the harrowing throes of the struggles of World War II. She is serving as an air raid warden in a busy shelter, with daily occurrences of air raid alarms slowly wearing down her hope of returning to a normal life. Already struggling to overcome the grief of losing her partner, she is forced to witness the suffering of the people and children around her as they all scurry to take shelter together.

One morning between the raids while on a walk outside she finds the titular sparrow fighting for its life laying flat out on the street. She picks it up and brings it home, trying her best to keep it warm and feed it fluids. With the help of her care the sparrow slowly recovers and its wounds start to heal, alongside which the bond between the two grows stronger and stronger. One day the woman sits down to play the piano, and the bird starts to chirp to the tunes, giving the pair a shared language of sorts.The film comes from the talented students of the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Germany. While the team behind it is extensive (56 people attached) there are six artists who contributed the lion's share throughout the production; Director Tobias Eckerlin, Technical Director Vincent Maurer, Lead Character Artist Elias Weber, Lead Animation Lilli-Luisa Heckmann and Jiro Magracia and last but not least Lead Groom & Feathers Rebecca Liebelt. Together they spent three years working on the project, two and a half of which were spent with animation and post-production.Based on the real life story of Clare Kipps and her sparrow Clarence, it is a tale of hope in the midst of immense tragedy. As the team themselves puts it: The theme was defined as “Find yourself by helping others”. With Kipps’ diary as a foundation for the early work of developing the story, I would imagine some tough choices had to have been made as to what to put on screen and what to leave for the viewer's imagination to fill in.

It is clear that a lot of time was poured into making each frame and detail just right. The animation style is a realistic 3D animation where love and care was put into making every wrinkle and vein appear as prominently as they often do on the elderly. This extends over to small mannerisms and shifts which is easy to overlook when dealing with the exactness of an animated source material. The attention to detail shows a deep respect for the source material. It is a story that moves slowly and deliberately, in spite of the relatively short runtime of under ten minutes it is allowed to breathe and linger in the right spots, giving the film a heft which is vital to making that impact which it does.

This attention and discipline extends to the sparrow itself too. The animals' anatomy and movements appear very natural to me as a viewer, even in the unnatural setting of a war bunker. I want to highlight the soundwork related to the bird specifically. The wind twirling around the wings as it takes flight or the subtle tapping of the feet as it moves from sitting on a hand or a shoulder, to strutting down the piano keys or a wooden surface really stood out to me. While certainly not overpowering, it helps draw you into the space as a viewer and further powers the realism that the look of the film is going for.

This is a film that sticks with you in a beautiful way, embodying melancholy and optimism in tandem. The director Tobias Eckerlin has made extensive notes about the team's process available online for those that are curious about the making of, and I am sure we will see more of the very talented team both this season and in future projects.

Review by: Robin Hellgren