Twelve months in an Ilkley potting shed could pay off big time for film-makers Simon Cartwright and Jessica Cope.

Their animated short-film, The Astonomer’s Sun, has been nominated for a prestigious British Animation Award in the Best Short Film Public Choice category at London’s British Film Institute in the spring.

Simon, of Ilkley, and Jessica, of Knaresborough, wrote and directed the six-minute film – their first since graduating from Edinburgh Art College in 2008.

It is being screened with other nominated films at 27 regional venues for the public to make their choice and is on at the National Media Museum next Saturday.

The film tells the story of a young man, accompanied by a mysterious mechanical bear, who visits an abandoned observatory to confront memories of his past and follow his father on a journey into the unknown.

Channel 4, the UK Film Council and Screen Yorkshire, the consortium running the new 4formations Digital Shorts scheme, snapped it up.

Simon, 24, said: “We went to London to pitch it and were surprised to come away with a winning bid. The commission was for £15,000.

“My parents have a potting shed where they live, down from White Wells Road in Ilkley. We had one set so we only needed one space.

“There was no heating and little electricity, so we had to kit it out. We worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. In winter it was freezing, a bit of a nightmare.

“The only way we were able to come out of it was through the generosity of people. Jessica and I got by getting horrendously in debt.”

Jessica, 25, has a boyfriend and Simon has a girlfriend. But they did not see much of them for a year.

Executive producer Tony Dixon, Screen Yorkshire’s emerging talent manager, said: “The Astronomer’s Sun is a beautifully-crafted film.”

There is to be an exhibition of the set and the models at the National Media Museum.