Always on
This project successfully funded on 14th November 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Marmalade is Missing!
Newport, United Kingdom
Aim
Help bring Marmalade is Missing! to life, a 2D masterpiece where women lead, queer sisterhood shines, body pride blooms, and magic thrives!
Marmalade is Missing!
Exquisite animation. Heart, Hustle, and Hips.
The Project:
Welcome to Marmalade is Missing!, a traditional 2D animated feature film set in the cabarets and smoky backrooms of 1930s Europe. At its heart, it’s a feminist comedy about solidarity, joy, and resistance.
The story follows a flamboyant burlesque and cabaret troupe that refuses to be silenced by the rise of fascism, misogyny, and censorship. Their weapons? Slapstick comedy, satire, sequins, and solidarity. Think pratfalls with purpose, glitter with grit, and a chorus line that doesn’t just kick high, it kicks back.
This story is about women and queer misfits who rise by lifting each other higher, laughing louder, and dancing harder in the face of hate.
Where the Idea Came From:
The idea began in 2014, when James Nutting and Amy Morris were working together on another animated production. Between long studio days and late-night creative chats, they discovered a mutual love of cabaret, its humour, heart, and unapologetic celebration of performance and individuality.
Out of those conversations grew the seed of a body-positive, saucy slapstick adventure, proudly rooted in F-rated filmmaking: stories created by women, about women, and for everyone.
They applied for early funding, but like many independent filmmakers, were told:
“We regret to inform you that on this occasion…we just can’t place your audience…highly competitive round…we wish you all the best…”
So, they made it anyway, launching a crowdfunder and using profits from other projects to bring it to life. After 13 script revisions and three years of hand-drawn animation, painted backgrounds, and an ancient rostrum camera, the short film was finally completed in 2024.
When released on YouTube, it found its audience. Viewers connected deeply with its humour, warmth, and celebration of bodies, joy, and creative freedom, proving that there’s always been space for this story and that it belongs centre stage.
⚠️ For content warnings - Contains mature themes. Not suitable for viewers under 15.
Watch the short film here: Marmalade Is Missing – Short Film (YouTube)
Why Now:
From online outrage to authoritarian swagger, the shadows of the 1930s have crept closer than we’d like to admit.
Marmalade is Missing is our rhinestone-studded rebellion, a dazzling, defiant laugh in the face of hate.
Because comedy is political, sequins are weapons. And joy is our resistance.
What Happens Next:
After reaching more than 3 million views, we knew we’d struck a chord. What began as a tiny, self-funded short has grown into something much bigger and bolder.
James and Amy are reunited, rekindling the creative spark that first brought Marmalade is Missing to life.
James Nutting is a world-class animator whose work on Joanna Quinn’s Oscar-nominated Affairs of the Art and the multi-award-winning Kensuke’s Kingdom showcases his extraordinary artistry and eye for character.
Amy Morris is an independent producer and former burlesque promoter with over 15 years of experience creating bold, distinctive projects that celebrate individuality, humour, and heart.
Glen Biseker, an experienced production manager and editor with a keen sense for storytelling, joins them.
Sam Beckbessinger is a celebrated writer and novelist whose wit and insight shine through every scene.
And Efa Blosse-Mason, a visionary filmmaker making her feature debut, is a director whose generosity, imagination, and colourful perspective remind us how magical the world can look through a different lens.
With this powerhouse team and £22,500 of development funding from Ffilm Cymru Wales, we’re now developing the feature film version of Marmalade is Missing.
The girls — and Marmalade — are back! This time, they’re stepping into a new world, meeting a fresh cast of characters, and facing off against a startlingly familiar populist baddie (you might just recognise the type).
This next chapter builds on everything audiences loved about the original: the body-positive sass, feminist humour, and hand-crafted heart, now expanded into a full-length, gloriously animated cabaret adventure.
Why We Need You:
We’ve secured early development support, but feature animation is a marathon, not a sprint. Your support will ensure that we can pay our team fairly for their work, bring new talent into the production, and raise the project’s profile to attract co-production partnerships. It’ll also allow us to create new content for our online channel, keeping our community engaged and supporting the project’s ongoing growth.
With your help, we can make sure Marmalade is Missing shines brighter than ever and reaches audiences worldwide.
We’re not just making a film, we’re putting on a show where joy struts, queerness sparkles, resistance kicks high, and everyone’s free to be gloriously themselves.
Step right up, darlings! If you’d like to join our troupe, we’ve got a range of sparkling rewards, each with its own dash of glitter, glamour, and gratitude. Depending on your pledge, you could receive your name up in lights, a cheeky postcard from the cast, secret glimpses behind the curtain and maybe even a spot in our fabulous Producers’ Circle!
By supporting Marmalade Is Missing, you’re helping prove that comedy, community, and courage can rewrite the script.
Back joy, back slapstick, back sequins. Back Marmalade is Missing!
If you can’t chip in right now, that’s absolutely fine. We still want you in the troupe! Stay tuned, because we’ll be launching another campaign further down the line, and we’d love for you to join us when the curtain rises again. Sequins optional, enthusiasm essential.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made