Cortex by Sena Miyazaki wins Best Undergraduate Student Film at BAA

The winners for the British Animation Awards 2024 have been announced at London's BFI Southbank. The winner for Best Undergraduate Award was Sena Miyazaki for his short film, Cortex. Also nominated from the university was Moonseeker by Tanya J Scott in the Postgraduate category.

Some of the leading British animation courses were represented in the Best Undergraduate and Best Postgraduate Student films. The winners were Sena Miyazaki’s (Arts University Bournemouth) Cortex for Best Undergraduate Student Film and Tanya J. Scott’s (National Film and Television School) The Wolf of Custer for Best Postgraduate Student Film.'

- BAA Press Release

Cortex is a short film running just over 4 minutes, recounting the tale of a desperate man who undergoes an experimental procedure using a technology called CORTEX. The system takes him on a journey through his mind to reconstruct memories and modify his past trauma.

‘The idea for Cortex originally came out of lockdown. I was alone with my thoughts a lot and my only escape was into creativity. I was thinking about the powers that new technologies can have over us and our reliance on them, especially in countries like Japan.’

‘In 2022, my third year at AUB, I was working on Cortex and had a rough idea of what I wanted the story to be, but I hadn’t quite got it. So, I took a short course in visual storytelling at GOBELINS in France where they mentored me for a couple of weeks to develop the story.

‘I’ve also taken short courses with the artists that I really admire. A lot of artists run their own courses and it’s a great way to make industry connections while you’re still at uni. It’s also a great way to emulate a specific studio if you’re looking to work there in the future.

‘I feel like this award is an accumulation of all the hard work I’ve been doing over the last few years. I’m just so grateful for everything, the opportunities I’ve had and the support from AUB and from the industry too. I’m still not sure if the news of the award has really sunk in for me yet. I do know that the 2022 me would be really proud of everything that’s happened, and especially proud of this award.’

- Sena Miyazaki, Director

Sena is now working for Disney as a background painter on a project due to debut in Summer 2024. Congratulations to Sena and all the nominees for the British Animation Awards inspired to create new worlds through animation.

You can watch Cortex on Youtube.