Animated film a small hotel group briefly backed (9)
I believe the answer is:
machinima
'animated film' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'a small hotel group briefly backed' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 'mini' (short for miniature).
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'group briefly' becomes 'cam' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'backed' is a reversal indicator.
'a'+'mini'+'h'+'cam'='aminihcam'
'aminihcam' written backwards gives 'MACHINIMA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for machinima that I've seen is " game-based film".)