National Lottery Game Changer: Ben Mullan

Since the first draw in 1994, The National Lottery has raised over £49bn to bring positive change to communities across the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. Thanks to the players of The National Lottery, good causes have been awarded over 690,000 individual grants to strengthen local communities, power sports teams, support environmental projects, unleash creative talent, empower the elderly and unlock young people's potential.

To mark The National Lottery's 30th birthday, they're launching a campaign celebrating the game-changing impact that they have collectively delivered, to help inspire the next generation of good causes and players.

As Into Film is one of the organisations awarded National Lottery good cause funding (through the BFI), this week we're highlighting five of our own inspiring young game-changers, whose remarkable achievements would not have been possible without the work that National Lottery funding allows us to do.

Ben Mullan

Ben Mullan, from Bedford, is a self-taught stop motion animator who believes in the human element of filmmaking, and who is already well on his way to achieving his ambition of working for Aardman Animations. He was named our Ones to Watch winner at the Into Film Awards in 2024, for his remarkable achievements in stop motion filmmaking over a number of years.

As a home educated young learner, Ben caught the animation bug aged nine, when attending a one-day animation workshop organised by his home-ed group. At age 12, he discovered our own Film of the Month competition, which gave him a way of showing his films to a wider audience. In July 2018, at age 13, Ben won Film of the Month for the first time with his film Animate and followed it up with a second win later that year with Thinking Out of the Box.

Ben entered school aged 13, and when the COVID-19 lockdown occurred in 2020, he and his sister took over the garage and together created a new film, The Seed, which came third in our Nature in Your Neighbourhood competition. It was inspired by the stories of wild animals wandering around in deserted town centres, and working on the animation provided a positive focus in an otherwise challenging time.

In 2021, Ben's film Insomnia won him yet another Film of the Month award, as well as a string of awards at other competitions and film festivals, while in February 2022 he was chosen to be part of the BFI Stop Motion Specialist online course.

In September 2023, Ben started training online with the Aardman Academy, and is now developing work for his portfolio and a new short film. After this, he hopes to continue creating his own films and apply for trainee stop motion animator positions at Aardman Animations. "I would love to work for Aardman Animations as a stop motion animator", Ben explained. "I hugely admire the creativity of their work, and their dedication to excellence."

Ben's filmmaking consistently shows a fantastic sense of humour, as well as a fabulous command of the art of stop motion animation. He has now won our Film of the Month competition more than any other filmmaker.

Recently, Ben has completed a five week course with Aardman Animations, and is putting all of his efforts into further developing his skills as an animator, with a particular focus on the role of character animator.

We're proud that, as a direct result of the BFI, awarding National Lottery good cause funding (as well as other key funders), Into Film have been able to support Ben to forge a pathway to becoming a professional stop motion animator.

Thank you to the BFI, everyone who plays the National Lottery, and to the National Lottery themselves, for their continued support, allowing Into Film to discover, support and develop game changers like Ben.