[INTERVIEW] ‘Busy Bodies’ Animator, Kate Renshaw-Lewis (Sundance Animator Spotlight Series 2026 #5)

Today we continue our annual tradition of getting to know the animators at the Sundance Film Festival. Our next animator to profile is Kate Renshaw-Lewis who has a new short at the festival, Busy Bodies. 

How did you get started in animation? 

KR: My name is Kate Renshaw-Lewis. I’m based in Los Angeles. I mostly specialize in 2D hand-drawn animation, but also dabble in other mediums as well. And I grew up watching a lot of animations. I didn’t think I was going to be an animator until I was applying for colleges, and I found the experimental animation program at CalArts. And just something in my brain was like, “That’s what you’re going to do and you’re going to love it.” And it was true.

What exactly is the difference between experimental animation and ordinary animation?

KR: There’s a lot of crossover. The two programs at CalArts are experimental animation and character animation. And character animation is much more based on classic narrative, plot, character story, versus experimental animation. I would say it’s a little bit more about the medium and playing with what animation can do and non-narrative films as well. But as I said, there’s a lot of crossover between the two.

How did you develop your signature style?

KR:A lot of it was sort of subconscious or without much thought… Just kind of how I draw and how I naturally tend to draw. It is based on what I watched growing up and where my interest led. A big example is I was absolutely terrified of E.T. As a kid. It really, really scared me. I would have these nightmares about him. But I think because I was so scared of him, the image of E.T. Kind of embedded into my brain and added to the style. And then other things like Wallace and Gromit and Gremlins and, yeah, The Point and Dr. Seuss. All of that, I think, just kind of grew in the back of my head.

So why don’t you tell us a little bit about Busy Bodies?

KR: So Busy Bodies is a film about the factory production method and sort of the absurdity and unknown behind how we get these disposable objects we have access to. The objects that I chose to use were lemons, rubber gloves and fish from various inspirations. But kind of just looking at when you go into a grocery store and there are these giant piles of items and duplicates of the same items and just really thinking like, “Wait, how did this get here? How do we have this? Who’s making this?”

They kind of look like little lemmings and they’re in this sort of world with tubes, and at one point they’re carrying all these oranges? And then you have fish coming out of the faucet?

KR: The idea was playing with the absurdity and how we have created so many almost overly engineered systems for convenience that it feels ridiculous. So in this world, instead of having water to wash your hands, the taps for the fish, and you use lemon juice to wash your hands, but then you’re also putting on rubber gloves, so it’s like, “Do you even need to wash your hands?” And those kind of questions of there are so many steps.

There’s a lot of cool sound design in the short for all the water and other movement. So what was that like getting that?

Yes, I did all the sound design myself, and I recorded a lot of the Foley. A lot of it I recorded just in my bedroom really late at night because I live in a pretty busy part of the city. And it was just me turning off all my fans and gathering various objects and recording over and over again, like me pouring water, me tapping on wood… A lot of ASMR style things

You must have been so excited when you found out you got into Sundance?

KR: Yeah, I had no expectations of it at all. So much of film festivals feels like you’re just shouting into the void of just like, “I’m spending some money that might go to absolutely nothing and some time. We’ll see.”

We’d love to thank Kate for taking the time to talk with us. Make sure to listen to the full interview and if you are attending the festival make sure to check out Busy Bodies as part of the Animated Short Film Program.