NEW ROOTS ANIMATION COMMISSION 2026
CIT (Creative Industries Trafford) and CHFA (Cosgrove Hall Films Archive) are excited to announce a new commission opportunity of £1,500 plus professional development support towards the creation of a new animated short film.
Applications are invited from artists, animators and filmmakers based in the North West who are seeking to produce their first animation short. This opportunity is for artists using animation and early career animators, including recent graduates - all those who have an animation project in development but need additional support to move it forward. We'd love to support an individual or small team with a lot of talent who need guidance and support to elevate their ideas and advance their career.
While the funding might not necessarily cover a full production, it is intended to help you to create an animatic or short form piece, test your approach, and create a stronger foundation for future funding opportunities and industry development. We’re happy to discuss and support you with future funding bids and to give you additional career advice alongside the opportunity.
New Roots funding also includes additional opportunities to meet like-minded creatives and to discuss your career with our team, receiving mentoring support relevant to your project needs.
Alongside the £1,500, the successful project will receive:
Meeting our team to discuss your ideas
A free place at our Puppet Masters Conference
A free place on CIT’s Script School and Meet the Producers event
Access to any animation related events and workshops we run.
Informal Funding application advice & support
Proof-reading your project proposal + timeline
ANIMATION COMMISSION EXPECTED OUTCOMES
We know every animation project develops differently, so we will meet with the selected artist(s) to support you setting your own timeline and time frame to work towards.
The selected project should expect to produce the following:
Set realistic goals, a budget and outcomes with the funding.
Develop a pitch deck (or refine and edit an existing one) that communicates your idea, visual style, production approach, and ambitions for your film.
Create your project concept, exploring your story, style, characters, and creative approach.
Use the commission funding to create an animatic, pilot sequence, stand alone short film or extract that demonstrates your vision and skillset.
New Roots is structured so that when you have completed this process we’d like you to utilise your completed work to apply for further funding, opportunities, roles and progression within the animation industry. For this reason we’re going to be meeting the selected artist(s).
DEADLINE to apply is the 4th September 2026 at 5pm.
Please read the eligibility and additional information below before applying.
To apply, please fill out the form on the following page:
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants should be:
Over the age of 18
Based in the North West - (so you can attend our events, meetings and receive the full benefits of this opportunity)
Submissions from recent graduates are welcome, including work that you’ve developed at College and University and would like to take further.
No formal education is required - you don’t have to have studied animation to apply, we accept applications from self-taught artists and makers.
We accept animation development from stop motion, hand drawn and CG. However, we like to encourage hand made elements in your work.
We accept animation from different genres; documentary, narrative, music videos, experimental, but the basis of your project should demonstrate animated techniques (stop motion, frame by frame, hand drawn, cut-outs, computer generated) - the more rooted in hand made the better.
The selected application should demonstrate clearly that they would like to pursue a career in animation, whether as an independent production or within a studio framework.
The finished piece from the project funding should demonstrate your animation ability, story concepts and style. It will act as a showcase for pitching beyond this commission.
We’d like your finished project to aim for between 2 - 15mins in length
We will accept pitch documents and slide decks. Please include links to where we can see them in your application.
CIT and CHFA support human artistry and creativity. We will not select proposals that use AI to create either script or visuals. We are looking for your personality and creativity to come across in the application and encourage projects where we see that a person has crafted the application.
We will not accept work or submissions attempting to mimic or re-produce pre-existing animation and artwork or work that potentially infringes or re-uses copyright held by other individuals
Your story or idea can also be based on a piece of writing, music or poetry but we expect applicants to get written permission or research copyrighted material before attempting to work with someone else’s material.
APPLICATION FORMAT
To apply, please fill out the form below, DEADLINE to apply is the 4th September 2026 at 5pm.
The application form covers the following questions:
About You - Tell us about your creative background, your experience with animation (if any), and what you hope to achieve in your career.
Overview of your animation project - Summarise your project, including the premise, visual style, intended audience, current stage of development, and what you hope to create.
Outline of how you would use the commission funding - Explain how you would use the funding (e.g. software, equipment, freelancer costs, research, voice actors, production time).
There is also space to upload up to five supporting materials (PDFs, artwork, storyboards, concept art, pitch deck, animatic or links).
ALTERNATIVE APPLICATION FORMATS
If making a written application is a barrier for you, we invite applicants to submit a video proposal that responds to each of our questions above.
To apply via video, please send us a link to where we can watch the proposal online and attach any supporting material to the email, please put the subject as NEW ROOTS and send your application to cit@watersidearts.org
APPLICATION ADVICE
We will be running an application advice session via zoom at 12pm on Wednesday 5th August to answer any questions, more details on this will be announced closer to the time.
If you have any other questions about how to apply in the meantime, then please contact us at cit@watersidearts.org