Cops and Robbers Wins Peabody Award

The Netflix original short film ‘Cops and Robbers’, created using animation from CREATE post-high students, has received a Peabody Award.

The film previously made the Academy Award long list.

Post-high graduates John Hildawa, Chantal Philippot, Aaron Raymundo, Anjali Sidhu and Matthew Tardaguila contributed animation to the project.

The Peabody Awards honour excellence in storytelling that reflects the social issues and the emerging voices of our day.

‘Cops and Robbers’ is based on Timothy Ware-Hill’s spoken word poem of the same name. The Broadway performer shared the poem online after police in Georgia shot and killed 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery while he was out for a run. In the original post, Ware-Hill is seen jogging through a residential area while reciting lines about innocence lost, racial injustice and police brutality.

American filmmaker Arnon Manor reached out to Ware-Hill about turning the video into an animated film, which was picked up this week by Netflix, along with two other shorts for Oscar consideration. In June, the co-directors invited more than 30 international animators and production companies to participate. Sisler got involved after Jan Phillip Cramer, of Avengers: Endgame and Avatar fame, put in a good word.