York student filmmakers triumph at Royal Television Society awards
University of York students have scooped the top prize in three of the four award categories they entered at the Royal Television Society Yorkshire Region Student Awards ceremony.
The student filmmakers from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television also picked up a further three runner up awards, despite facing strong competition from nine other universities and colleges across Yorkshire and the Humber.
Held at York Racecourse, a panel of industry judges picked winners across five categories – News, Factual, Animation, Entertainment and Fiction. The University of York submitted eight films across all but the News category.
Dan Atherton and Tom Day won the Entertainment category for their film Slackline, while Oliver Hadlow-Martin and Danny Carter were the winners of the Factual category with Two Fires. Ed Gammie was a runner up in the Factual category with his film The Boy Without a Voice.
For our first year at the event, the course did really well, and I'm excited to see how our department fares in future years
Danny Carter
And it was a clean sweep for Department of Theatre, Film and Television students in the Fiction category, with three awards. The winner was Oscar Udbye for his film Things That Happened on the 9th of March, while the runners up were Danny Carter with The First Night and Sam Meacock with The Egg.
Professor Andrew Higson, Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television, said: “This was a superb achievement and fully justified by the wonderful quality of the work submitted. Huge congratulations to all the filmmakers, their casts and crews and to all those who contributed to the work through their teaching and technical support.”
Danny Carter, joint winner of the Factual category and runner up in the Fiction category, said: “I'm over the moon with the recognition that our films have received. The RTS put on a great event, championing the work of students in Yorkshire and the Humber. For our first year at the event, the course did really well, and I'm excited to see how our department fares in future years."
Most of the films submitted to the competition by other universities were made by final year students. One of the York films to win an accolade was made by a then first year student, while the rest were made by students in their second year of the BSc in Film and Television Production, which is led by John Mateer.
John Mateer said: “We designed the BSc Film and Television Production course with the goal of enabling our students to become world-class filmmakers and television programme creators. It is great to see them do so remarkably well in their first industry-focused competition, particularly when none of them had yet started the third year of their degree. Our students are very talented and we could not be happier about their success.”
The award-winning films were first screened in June at the Luma Film Festival, a brand new annual film festival organised by York students to celebrate and champion their work.
The RTS awards attracted 47 entries from the Universities of Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and York, Hull College, York St John University, Hull School of Art and Design, Leeds Metropolitan University, Sheffield Hallam University and Leeds Trinity University College.
Robin Small, from the Royal Television Society (RTS) Yorkshire Centre, said: “The RTS Yorkshire Centre is really pleased that the University of York students did so well in their first RTS awards. The industry judges were impressed with the high standard of the work.”
The winners will now go forward to represent Yorkshire RTS in the Royal Television Society National Student TV Awards in London in May 2013.
Further information
- BSc Film and Television Production
- For further information on the University of York’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television visit www.york.ac.uk/tftv
- Photo of Oliver Hadlow-Martin, Dan Atherton, Oscar Udbye, Ed Gammie, Sam Meacock, Liam Bracey, Danny Carter and John Mateer by Hannah Ali © 2012