Animation alumnae’s short film wins prestigious award at the Nashville Film Festival

From capstone project to the big screen at the Nashville Film Festival, alumnae became the first to win Best Short Film at the festival for their senior thesis film.

Courtney Grable | 12/08/2022

Recent Lipscomb animation alumnae Natalie Peterson (’22) and Aubrey Witherspoon (’22) have already accomplished a first for Lipscomb University’s animation department: their senior capstone film project won the Best Short Film at the 2022 Nashville Film Festival. 

Ember and the Keeper of the Cauldron is the story of a young girl named Ember trying to find her place in the world by proving she can help out her Grandmother Nina, who is trying to brew a magical potion before sunrise. But when she is sent into the woods to get firewood, the forest fights back. In the end, Ember learns that there is no one right way to solve a problem. 

Witherspoon is currently assistant art director at Pencilish Animation Studios, founded by Lipscomb animation program Director Tom Bancroft. Meanwhile, Peterson is working on The Wingfeather Saga, a multi-series animated TV show distributed by Angel Studios and based on a series of four fantasy-adventure novels by Nashville author and singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson.

Creating an award-winning film is no easy task, however, creating an award-winning film as a full-time student is an even more remarkable achievement. Full length films, such as those created by Disney and Pixar, typically take between 5-6 years to get to the big screen. For Peterson and Witherspoon, they only had one year to go through the entire development process.

In 2021, the summer before their senior year, the two embarked on the daunting journey by conceptualizing the film, which “became a representation of both of us,” said Witherspoon. Both of them love magical and mystical things, but they each had their own unique gifts that helped advance the film. Peterson loves drawing trees, stars and backgrounds while Witherspoon loves drawing and developing characters.

It was an ongoing process, taking months to come up with a title, but the two loved working together and both found themselves “growing with the film,” says Witherspoon. “Finishing a film with only two people for a majority of the film is the biggest feat of it.” 

Throughout the process, the pair found themselves surrounded by a team of people supporting them. By February and March, they were in a good place with the animation and ready to add sound and a score, but technical difficulties required them to drop everything and call on animation classmate McKenzie Chaffins (’22) to help. Chaffins, who worked with the pair as the sound designer, was able to restore lost sound files and thus complete the end stage of sound design. 

Claire Hopkins (’22), Witherspoon’s freshman roommate, created the score for the film, and won the award at Lipscomb’s 5 Minute Film Festival for Best Score for a Short Film. Aedan Peterson (’21), Natalie’s husband and animation grad, helped with the project as well. 

One thing Witherspoon learned during her time at Lipscomb was that “you don’t have to do all the work, you can learn from other people… In the animation program, everyone really cares for each other,” she said. 

Learning how to lean on people throughout the process and development of the film was a key component for Witherspoon, who said “this (award) is for all the people who have motivated and been there for me throughout the whole process.” 

Witherspoon also says that animation director Bancroft played an influential role in her journey as an artist throughout the process, showing her what it is to make a story and what goes into a film. Where Peterson and Witherspoon found themselves artistically inspired, Bancroft and other animation professors taught them structure, discipline and how to have patience with themselves. 

Providing advice to other aspiring animators and students, Witherspoon said “first and foremost, take care of yourself.… You make better art when you take care of yourself and the people around you. Friends are a huge support system. Make sure to create a good community around you. 

“As an artist, my advice would be to find what makes you passionate. If you can’t focus on your personal passion, pour into those around you.”