Role
Annie Watson has been the Deputy Head of Department for Design and Digital Arts since November 2022, a role that includes strategic vision as well as operational expertise. Sitting within Nottingham School of Art and Design, this large department offers 18 undergraduate and 5 postgraduate degrees within six subject areas of Digital Arts, Film & TV, Fine Art, Photography, Design for Performance and Visual Communication.
Prior to this role, Annie was a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Media Arts and Communication, and the Subject Group Leader in Film Production for 14 years at Sheffield Hallam University, after 10 years in the film industry, working as a film editor, fiction film writer/director and director of pop videos, where she won a number of international awards including a BAFTA nomination.
Annie is passionate about inclusivity in all areas of Higher Education, from providing and enabling access to education to identifying and challenging biases that enable or restrict staff career development.
Annie's leadership and management style is people focused with an aim of affecting positive change in university cultures and empowering both staff and students.
Career overview
Annie’s undergraduate film was selected and distributed by the British Council as an example of the Best of British short films and this early achievement was followed by an award winning career as a writer, director and editor of short films and pop videos. She has been nominated for Video of the Year by Q Awards, represented in London and Hollywood as a feature film writer and director, selected for Screen International's 'Stars of Tomorrow', and nominated for a BAFTA for Best British Short Film.
Annie began teaching directing, screenwriting and filmmaking within Higher Education as an hourly paid lecturer in 2007, gaining a Senior Lecturer role shortly after and progressing to Principal Lecturer within a few years, taking on many roles; Head of Quality, Athena Swan Champion, Collaborative Course Leader, Departmental mentor and Subject Group Leader of Film Production.
Qualifications include a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Art specialising in art and performance, postgraduate qualifications in Experimental Film, Video and Audio (NMS) and Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (SHU). She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA, and has recently completed a practice based PhD around adaptation and character perspective.
Research areas
Annie's practice-based PhD combines adaptation theory, archival research and (feminist) film theory, and uses practice as a research method itself, through the creation of an experimentally adaptive film, that questions the influence of the film director on the 'voice' of the protagonist.
Wider areas of research interest are around sensual cinema, cinema of sensations, the hierarchy of vision in cinema and haptic cinema, female film directors, how character perspective/alignment/focalisation is understood and conveyed and the relationship between maker and viewer/audience. She is interested in questions around filmic and aural communication through character perspective and construction of story in films.
Annie's research within Higher Education revolves around inclusivity, collaboration and staff wellbeing, and Annie is the co-founder of the Walking Arts Research Group.
Through Sheffield Hallam University, Annie was the UK National Researcher for European Women's AudioVisual Network (EWA) report on female film directors.
External activity
External Examiner positions:
Chester University BA (Hons) TV Production 2016-2019
Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University BA (Hons) Filmmaking 2017-2020
External Advisory positions:
Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University. External Academic Advisor for revalidation of BA (Hons) Filmmaking 2017
Buckinghamshire New University. Academic Reviewer for validation of BA (Hons) Film Production 2019
Collaborative Partner positions:
Collaborative Course Leader for Film, Digital Media and Games courses at Sheffield College and Barnsley College 2016-2020
Academic Liason Tutor representing the NTU School of Art & Design for Nottingham College HE provision 2022 - ongoing
International academic collaborations:
In 2018, Annie co-organised two cross discipline (film, animation and creative writing) international trips to Montreal and Zagreb, where undergraduate students made film poems inspired by the surroundings, and attended poetry festivals where Annie's Arts Council commissioned film poems were screened. The students' filmpoems were also screened at a special event later.
Annie set up connections in 2022 with universities in Athens and Switzerland to enable collaborative working, student and staff exchanges, and the development of COIL projects.
Publications
Annie's website includes a selection of short films.
Selected Filmography/commissions/awards as Director:
BONJOUR TRISTESSE REIMAGINED 2022 PhD practice film.
FOUR HEARTBEATS AND FOUR WAVES 2019 4 minutes PhD practice film. Screened at: Lit/Film Association Annual Conference, University of Oregon, Portland and art.earth's Evolving The Forest conference, Dartington, Devon.
LA COULEUR DE LA TEMPERATURE 2017 Film poem in collaboration with Quebec poet Rosaline Lambert. Commissioned by: British Council, in partnership with International Literature Showcase and Writers' Centre Norwich. Partners include literature festivals in Canada, Croatia, South Africa, India and Trinidad & Tobago.
A HAT FOR LEONARD 2019 Filmpoem with poet Chris Jones. Written and filmed in Montreal, as a celebration of Leonard Cohen.
SATURN & MERCURY 2017 Interactive film artworks for SOLAR, a walking app. Music: Dean Honer. Screened at: Documenta Festival, Kassel 2017.
SHOES THAT WALK ALONE 2016 Filmpoem with writer Stephen Scott. Underwater Go Pro footage heavily effected in post. Screened at: ICA, London Short Film Festival. Nominated for Best Experimental Film.
FOUR EQUAL PARTS 2016. Filmpoem with poet Gevi Carver. Projected onto Sheffield's Weston Park Museum. Commissioned by: Wordlife and Year of Making, Sheffield with support from Arts Council of England.
QUEEN OF AIR 2016. Filmpoem with poet Joe Kriss. Projected onto iconic buildings in Hull. Commissioned by: Amy Johnson Festival and sponsored by the Arts Council of England. Screened at: Amy Johnson Festival, Hull, and Women in Engineering Festival, University of Sheffield.
SPEAK PLAINLY TODAY ABOUT BEAUTY 2015. Filmpoem with poet Tony Walsh. Projected onto Sheffield's Upper Chapel. Commissioned by: Off the Shelf and Wordlife for Poetry Light Night, in partnership with Ruskin in Sheffield.
STARJUMP 2007 16mm 2 mins D.O.P: Robbie Ryan. Commissioned by: Digital Broadway, Nottingham. Exhibited: Broadway Cinema, Sheffield Independent Film.
KID ACNE - SLIDING DOORS promo 2007 16mm 3 mins. Produced by: WARP Films. Awards: Video of the Week Radio 6 Music
KNITTING A LOVE SONG 2004 16mm 14 mins Exec Producers: EMMEDIA, Screen Yorkshire. D.O.P: Robbie Ryan. Distributed by: Brit Films. Sold to: Canal +, Canadian Short Film Channel. Festivals: Cannes, Clemment-Ferraud, Brief Encounters, London, Foyle, Leicester, Cork, Kino, Commonwealth, Birds Eye View. Awards: Nomination BAFTA Best British Short, Best Director, Best Actor, Yorkshire Film Award.
THE GRIN 2003 11 mins D.O.P Robbie Ryan. Festivals: Leeds Short, Kino, Halloween. Distributed by: Dazzle Films
MEDICINE - ASTRAL GRAVY promo 2002 16mm 3 mins. Produced by: WARP Films. D.O.P Rob Hardy. Press: Promo Magazine
IMONSTER - DAYDREAM IN BLUE promo 16mm 3mins. Produced by WARP Films. Awards: Q Magazine VIDEO OF THE YEAR
KISS ME 1996 16mm 3mins Festivals: Trampoline, Kino, Halloween. Distributed by: The British Council
THIS IS A PRESENT 1995 16mm 4 mins. Festivals: Hanover Up and Coming, Kino, Halloween. Distributed by: The British Council
Course(s) I teach on
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Undergraduate | Full-time / SandwichCOURSE
Filmmaking - BA (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/art-and-design/ug/ba-hons-filmmaking