Originally published in About Manchester, August 19, 2025
A deeply personal short animation film that was eight years in the making premieres this September in Manchester.
Small Hours: A Portrait of Alcoholism by BAFTA-shortlisted filmmaker Oscar Wyndham Lewis, who used to live in Bury, will get its first screening as part of Recoverist Month. Cold Feet actor Robert Bathurst, also known for his roles in Downton Abbey and Toast of London, voices the lead character.
The hand-painted animation explores the grip of addiction and the fragile hope of human connection and Bathurst calls the film “deeply moving and very touching.”
Now three years in recovery, Oscar, 35, says he is in a very different place than when he first started sketching out storyboards in 2017. Production was then put on hold for seven years as a result of the filmmaker’s own struggles with alcohol use.
Royal College of Art graduate Oscar now lives in the Kent seaside town of Margate with his partner and two young children. And after raising almost £10,000 on Kickstarter to fund the film, his passion project has finally been realised. Small Hours was produced in association with Manchester-based contemporary arts organisation Portraits of Recovery (PORe)
The film makes use of a painstaking oil paint on glass technique and tells the story of a reclusive artist whose life has been hollowed out by addiction. In a last ditch attempt, he reaches out to a long-lost childhood friend. What unfolds is a poignant meditation on the choices that shape our lives – the quiet, pivotal moments that steer us toward redemption or ruin. As the two men’s paths converge, the film asks what drives someone to such despair and can anyone truly reach them?
A true labour of love, every frame of the 13-minute-long film is an individual painting on a piece of flat glass. With 480 illustrations making up each minute of film, Oscar needed to hand paint over 5,000 images to complete the work, wiping each off the glass before beginning the next. He estimates that on a ‘good day’, he was able to produce 40 paintings.
Actor Edward Franklin plays opposite Robert Bathurst and the music was composed by Oli Mason. Andrew Gregory, health editor of The Guardian, is lead producer via his production banner, Brungerley and Pete Harpum is executive producer.
Oscar’s first hand-painted animation, The Waves, was an autobiographical account of his return to the studio after a breakdown. It won the Scottish Mental Health Arts Prize and was shortlisted for a BAFTA in 2017.
Oscar said: “I first drafted Small Hours in 2017, but the project was shelved for a reason that is tinged with irony. For about a decade, my life was stunted by alcohol.
“When I started work on the film, I was in the depths of addiction and that got in the way. But I finished it as someone who is three years in recovery.”
He says recent experience of reaching out to a loved one who has a substance use issue shaped the film’s final direction.
“I am currently supporting someone I am close to who has their own battle with alcohol,” he said. “This led me to rethink the original premise of the film to incorporate what it means when someone who really understands reaches out to you.
“I think it is a better piece of storytelling because of this added dimension.”
Robert Bathurst said: “I admire Oscar as an animation artist. He has a painterly quality which creates his own reality and dreamlike urgency. The swirling style lends itself beautifully to the subject matter.
“This film is a window into the world which Oscar has created, reflecting a state of mind which many people could recognise. It is both deeply moving and very touching.”
Oscar hopes the film resonates with people whose lives have been affected by substance use.
“I hope Small Hours strikes a chord with people who have either experienced problematic alcohol use themselves or through someone in their lives,” he said. “Though the film has dark themes, it carries a hopeful message.
“That message is simple: if someone in your life is suffering with addiction, the best support you can offer is just to show up.
“There’s no need for grand gestures or profound words – simply being there can make all the difference. Addiction is often faced alone, and no one can get better by themselves.”
Mark Prest, founding director, Portraits of Recovery, who part-financed the film and are hosting its premiere as part of Recoverist Month, said: “Oscar’s work embodies the ethos of Portraits of Recovery, which envisions a transformed society where individuals in recovery are empowered by the arts to creatively change the world around them.
“I know there are few contemporary artists who visibly identify as being in recovery and who produce work of this calibre. We are critically keen to support that development.
“Oscar explores the medium of painting in more expansive ways and that contributes to notions of what a painting can be. Small Hours is a significant work, underpinned by an urgent message, and it is a delight to host the premiere as part of this year’s Recoverist Month programme.”
The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with Oscar Wyndham Lewis. It shows as part of this September’s Recoverist Month, which places lived experience at the heart of an annual, month-long arts programme, re-writing narratives on substance use and recovery. It was established in 2023 by contemporary arts organisation Portraits of Recovery.
Small Hours: A Portrait of Alcoholism premiere and Q&A is at Everyman Manchester St John’s cinema, 21-23 Quay Street M3 4AS on Monday 23 September 2025 6-7.30pm. Tickets are free and include pre-screening refreshments. (A £2.50 booking fee will be applied at purchase)