Interview with BAFTA nominated Animator Ida Melum

Ida Melum is an EE BAFTA and BIFA-nominated, Annie and RTS award-winning animation director based in Sweden.

She is an alumna of the prestigious MA Directing Animation program at the National Film and Television School, where she graduated with the stop-motion film ‘Night of the Living Dread’. The film was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Short Animation, won an Annie Award in 2023 and was selected for over 90 festivals worldwide, and won over 25 awards.

Her upcoming stop-motion short, ‘Ovary-Acting’, was supported by both the Norwegian and Swedish Film Institute and had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2025. The film was also selected for Official Competition at Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025, and 50 other festivals to date.

Her other credits include working as an animator on acclaimed projects such as the BAFTA-winning ‘Poles Apart’ and ‘Facing It’ and the BBC nature documentary ‘Attenborough’s Wonder of Song’. In 2022 she was also hired to create and direct the festival trailer for Fredrikstad Animation Festival 2022.

In addition to her work as a filmmaker and animator, Ida has served on multiple film festival juries, using her experience and perspective to support and celebrate emerging voices in animation.

1. Describe a typical day for you?

It really depends, haha. Being a freelance director, my ‘typical’ day changes every 4 months or so. At the moment, I`m on maternity leave, but just 6 months ago I was working from home, animating and comping the last shots together on our film Ovary-Acting. And 6 months before that I was in Norway, on set, shooting the stop-motion part of the film.

Some things are constant though. My husband will always brew me a cup of coffee when we’re together, which is just the best way to wake up in the morning (so spoiled). We always make sure to eat dinner together too. Now with our 7-month-old daughter, we always try to have some playtime as a family, usually on the living room carpet. It’s a very lovely way to slow down after a hectic work day.

2. What are you most proud of to-date?

Well, a thing that happened recently was that I ended up having my first baby the same two weeks as I was wrapping my latest short film. Looking back I`m incredibly grateful and proud of my team, and how they handled the situation, as well as my husband and family who were such an incredible support network. Everybody made sure we got through it as seamlessly as possible, and things went so well that I was back working 4 days after birth, and we wrapped the film in time to reach our Tribeca film festival deadline.

3. What’s in your handbag/ satchel?

I`m a diehard bumbag gal, which doesn’t have much in it tbh. But I rarely leave without my chapstick and my red lipstick.

4. What do you wish you’d known at the start of your career you now know?

Hindsight is always 20-20, but I think I wish I’d spent less time trying to please everyone with my work. Now, some years later and with more experience under my belt, I feel way more confident, both as a person and as a director. I`ve learned to trust my intention with my films and hopefully it resonates with people, but if it doesn’t, that’s OK too.

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

Hopefully with my hands full of both engaging creative projects and family shenanigans. Maybe in a house with a garden – I wouldn’t say no to that.

6. What advice would you give a budding animator/filmmaker?

My advice would be to try to surround yourself with people who believe in you and your ideas. And, when you do end up finding them,  to hold on to them. Finding your creative collaborators is so special, and a lot more rare than one would think.

7. What was the inspiration behind your brilliantly engaging and important short Ovary-Acting?  

When I was approaching my late twenties I was no stranger to the topic. Finally, after many awkward conversations about when I’d finally have kids, I started to wonder: did I really want children for myself, or was it just what people expected of me? And the pressure wasn’t just coming from the people around me. I realised I had been putting that pressure on myself as well, and never let myself even consider anything else. That was what led me to want to make Ovary-Acting.

8. How long did it take to make the film and what hurdles did you have to overcome?

We spent about 2 years pitching and applying for funding before we secured the entire budget. Then we spent about a year and half actually making the film. One of the biggest hurdles was the scale of the puppets. Due to the restrictions on our shooting space, the puppets could only be a certain size, which made Ovy, the protagonist puppet 4 ½ centimeters, which I believe is just an inch and a half. From an animator’s point of view, that is very daunting. Especially as Ovy had to be this big, bold, larger than life character. Luckily for me I had my great friend and collaborator Rich Farris on board. He and our incredible voice actor Sofia Oxenham did such an amazing job bringing Ovy to life, making her the bubbly, naive, yet charming character the story needed her to be.

9. Women can feel they lose agency over their ovaries in their 30s, which you addressed perfectly in the film, how has your message been received? Has any feedback surprised you? I know I surprised myself as a young filmmaker who became broody overnight at 27 and to a large extent, to the detriment of my first career, why did this subject matter, matter to you?

The response to the film has been above and beyond what I dared to wish for. Audiences have been so kind and generous, both in their reaction to the film but also sharing their own personal stories with us. The team and I felt the story was relevant when we first started developing it in 2021, but by the time we finished the film, the political landscape had shifted so much that it had become even more timely.

The film was made by a group of women from different countries, backgrounds, and sexualities – some who have kids, some who are considering it, some who don’t want children, and others whose path to motherhood looks very different to the characters depicted. Watching the hard-won rights to women’s bodily autonomy be rolled back so easily is frightening, and it’s something that weighed heavily on us throughout the process.

At its core, the film explores the pressure society puts on women to become mothers – and to fit a very specific idea of what motherhood should look like. As someone who experienced that pressure, I wanted to make an entertaining film that would also spark some important conversations, which we so desperately need right now, especially in a moment when the rallying cry of, “our body, our choice” feels more urgent than ever.

10. Finally, happiness is…

Spending time with my family, and making films with my friends.

Headshot photo credit: Taylor Shulin

Film still credit: Klipp & Lim, Jante Films & Apparat Filmproduktion.