Bolton on Dearne father and daughter filmmakers win awards recognition for lockdown wildlife shorts

But father and daughter team Dean and Rebecca Sills, from South Yorkshire, have proved that exploring the natural beauty of even our own back gardens can capture the imaginations of viewers.

The pair began documenting animals during the coronavirus pandemic and have since put together three short films.

What they did not expect from a hobby used to pass the long lockdown hours was to be recognised in film festival awards around the world.

Dean, 53, from Bolton on Dearne, is an actor who has appeared in shows such as The Great Train Robbery, Emmerdale and The Syndicate, while Rebecca, 23, studies art and design in Barnsley.

“During lockdown I wasn’t getting any work and my daughter was having to do her coursework from home,” says Dean.

“A family of squirrels started coming into the garden, so we just started filming them. My daughter took some footage and sent it into Calendar and they showed it. It encouraged us to make it into a film. We ended up with three hours of footage and made a five minute film.”

The Wild Garden, the first of a lockdown trilogy in 2020, was later complemented by A Winter’s Tale in 2021 and now their new short, Pond Life. The latest work features wildlife around their back garden pond: frogs, butterflies, hedgehogs, tadpoles and, using underwater cameras, water mussels and fish such as shubunkin.

Dean says that his wider family was directly affected by Covid and at a time when arguments and speculation about the virus raged online, focusing on nature allowed him and Rebecca to take their minds off it. “I’ve always watched wildlife but until lockdown I’ve never really appreciated it. There’s a lot of birds now which I didn’t know and we can go down to the fields where the River Dearne is and I can see birds and I know what they are instantly, or even from a call.”

To test the water they decided to submit their work to various online festivals, some of which announce awards monthly, through the FilmFreeway website. The Wild Garden, A Winter’s Tale and Pond Life have each won recognition in numerous categories from hosts such as the Virgin Spring Cinefest, Istanbul Film Awards, Indo Singapore International Film Festival, Cult Critic Movie Awards, Halicarnassus Film Festival, World Film Carnival at Singapore and the Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival.

Dean says: “It’s something that set off from a hobby and it’s building into a career. I’m planning on doing more work behind the camera instead of in front of it.”

While gaining recognition abroad, their work has also turned the heads of locals, who have seen it featured on the news.

“If we walk around the village now, everyone’s speaking to us, saying ‘Oh we’ve seen you on the telly’.”

He adds: “When we started doing it, it wasn’t to enter into film festivals, it’s just gone in that direction.”

He has set up his own production company, Dearne Productions.

“I’ve done a lot of independent horror and I think when you’re making your own films you’ve got control, you can get them to where you want them broadcast, you can release them on DVD, Amazon Prime and stuff like that.

“I know a lot of mates who’ve done independent stuff, they’ve done their acting, got paid and then the film’s never been released or finished.

“I still want to carry on with acting, I’ve just got a passion for being behind the camera. We’re actually doing a Western later in the year, probably spring.”