student awards

Spring Is Sure to Follow – “a beautiful story of acceptance with great casting and performances”, said the judges – triumphed in the Drama category. The “funny, whimsical and well-acted” Mantis Shrimp won the Entertainment and Comedy prize.

The Animation category was won by Ulster University, Belfast student Patrick Faulkner with Unseen: Alone in Space, and Ulster University, Coleraine’s Nathan Edgar took home the Factual Short-form award with On the Edge.

Middlesex University students took home the Factual Short-form and Entertainment and Comedy Drama awards. Factual winner The Turning Point by Sanaa Hamdoun told the story of a young Lebanese woman’s determination to break into the film industry, and was “well told and crisply edited”, said the judges.

Alina Ilin and Benjamin Bogdan-Hodgson’s rom-com The Other Half, set in a “gorgeous chocolate box European village” was “very witty”.

The Animation award went to Michael Blake’s film Doggerland, which the judges said “was a highly original story, which really stood out with real craft and emotion”. Skive won the Drama award as a film that was “compelling” and “brilliantly acted”.

The Entertainment and Comedy Drama category went to the “hilarious” and “sophisticated” Shmelvis, while Forgotten Fibre took home the Saving the Planet prize.

Elliot Foster, Annie Foulkes and Andrei Stanescu won the Entertainment and Comedy Drama award, with Foulkes also recognised in the Craft Skills: Writing category. The judges praised Kate Is Sad for its “great script and cracking performances”.

Northern Film School students also took home the Drama award with Worry-Fear-Unease. The Triptych, which the judges called “cinematic, with great art direction, strong performances and an ambitious story structure”.