Yorkshire-born film maker "delighted" with bafta win for animation celebrating midwives

Now, the Yorkshire-born director is celebrating after winning a Bafta for her short animation, Mother of Many. Emma, 33, is "delighted" with the award. "I never dreamt anything like this might happen. I still wake up and have to pinch myself that I have actually just won a Bafta," she says. "I had been thinking of retraining as a midwife but I think I'll stick with animation now."

Her six-minute film, which follows the rhythms of a baby inside the womb, was inspired by her mother a retired midwife. "My mum retired last year after spending 30 years as a midwife during which time she delivered more than 3,000 babies at Airedale hospital," says Emma. "I found myself thinking about it a lot and realised what an incredible thing she did, because it is the most amazing job. It's stressful and tiring, but it's also such a beautiful thing to do and the film is a celebration of midwives." Emma was born in Bradford and raised in Silsden, and went on to study graphics and animation at the Hull School of Art and Design, where she won a student animation award.

After spending three years working for an animation company based in the Scottish Highlands she moved to London, where she worked as an animator on the award-winning BBC2 comedy Monkey Dust, and lead designer on CBBC favourite Charlie and Lola. Much of her time, though, was spent working on music videos and adverts and three years ago she joined Bristol-based production company Arthur Cox, which produced her award-winning short. Emma claims making the film was "a lot like a pregnancy. It was nine months of hard work, I felt a bit ill at the beginning but slowly I became more and more wrapped up in it and the end was emotional and messy." She hopes her Bafta win will lead to bigger and brighter things.

"I have a couple of things coming up and having done this I definitely want to make films that mean something." Watch this space, because Emma Lazenby is a star in the making. To order a copy of the film email [email protected].