VIDEO: Dave's Comedy Festival #ComedyShorts winner is crowned

A quirky animation about a man searching for the grave of a relative has won a comedy festival prize.

The Grave, by Richard Woolford, beat more than 100 other films to be crowned winner of Comedy Shorts, a new competition by Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival to find the best digital funnies.

The film features a helpful priest who uses Guess Who-inspired questions to help Seymour find the grave.

Richard, 35, from Stevenage, turned to animation after Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, stopped him doing stand-up five years ago.

"I couldn't do stand-up because I was going through chemotherapy, but I was writing sketches and animations – anything but performing live," he said.

"Things are starting to get back to normal. Being from a stand-up background it is amazing to win this award from the festival.

"I was seeing all my friends in comedy going on to do brilliant things and I felt a bit left behind, but I feel this means I am catching up a bit."

Judges said they picked Richard's film ahead of 118 other entries, because it made them laugh instantly.

Steve North, general manager of the TV channel Dave, who was one of the judges, said: "It was a funny, original idea and took us all back to our childhoods and the fun Guess Who games we played.

"We had some wonderfully-crafted entries. It's great to see so much passion about comedy."

Modern technology was the inspiration for the winner of the People's Choice category of the competition, decided by the number of online views.

Modern Conversation features two women who meet for a drink but only communicate via their phones.

Directed and filmed by Ben Garfield and written by Rose Robinson and Megan Smith, of comedy group Mixed Doubles, it got more than 15,000 YouTube views.

Ben, 24, from London, said: "We are all just starting out, so to get recognition from people who know what they are talking about – the festival, the comedian involved, Dave – it's really encouraging."

Festival founder Geoff Rowe said: "We've been making people laugh for 20 years.

"It's great we are able to extend the laughs into cyber space this year."

See the full selection of shorts here.

See the Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival website www.comedy-festival.co.uk