The winners will be crowned at an awards ceremony on Friday 21st June hosted by BBC Look East presenter and reporter Mousumi Bakshi at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. This prestigious event will gather over 100 industry people from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire to celebrate television filmed or produced in the East of England in the last year.  

Across 14 competitive categories, 41 programmes have been nominated, recognising outstanding work in journalism, factual, scripted, short form, crafts, and promotional film. ITV News Anglia leads the way with 6 nominations, including News Story of the Year for Send SOS and Cost of Learning Crisis, On-Screen Personality for David Whiteley, and News Journalist of the Year for Rob Setchell. Following closely is the BBC with 5 nominations, with Debbie Tubby and Nikki Fox competing for News Journalist of the Year and Janine Machin nominated for On-Screen Personality. Competing for On-Screen Personality is also Matt Baker, who is being recognised for his work on the series Matt Baker's Travels in the Country: USA and Travels with Mum and Dad. 

With 5 nominations, True Vision East’s productions are also featuring heavily in the awards. Stacey Dooley: Ready for War? secured three nominations for Craft Director, Editor, and Cinematographer, while The Sixth Commandment was nominated for Craft Cinematographer and Scripted – Single or Series.  

New to this year’s ceremony are Awards for Short Form Digital, Games and VFX, and News Craft Talent. VineFX (The Lazarus Project Series 2) and Sketchbook Games (Lost Words: Beyond the Page) go head-to-head in the Games and VFX category, while Eye Film, Meantime Media, and Louis James-Parker LTD compete for Short Form Digital.  

In addition to Short Form Digital, Norwich's Eye Film is also nominated for Promotional Film and Factual – Specialist, competing in the latter category against DragonLight Pictures (Six Inches of Soil) and Bohemia Films (The Gold: The Inside Story), who also secured a nomination in Factual – Documentary for Being Kae Tempest.  

This year we've got an unprecedented number of first-time nominations from companies across the region, including two for Typical? from Stevenage-based Inclusivity Films, and two for Six Inches of Soil from Cambridge's DragonLight Pictures. It's also a first for Hertfordshire's Hidden Door Productions who've been nominated in the scripted category for Love Without Walls and for Instant Film UG whose documentary Seaside Special was filmed in Cromer, Norfolk. 

We've also expanded our categories to include craft honours this year, to celebrate the many talented individuals who are based in the East of England. First time nominees in these categories include cinematographer Christopher Sharman (Inappropriate), editor Adam Bokey (Grime Kids), and sound designers / composers Andrew Barnabas (Harvey Greenfield is Running Late), Bennet Maples (The Beasts of Halloween), and Mike Exarchos and team (Drunk? Adventures in 16th Century Brewing).   

Rachel Watson, Chair of RTS East, said: “We are so excited to announce the nominations for this year’s RTS East awards. There’s so much talent working in film and television in the East of England and we’re delighted that our expanded awards this year are able to showcase the very best in the industry across a range of genres. And it’s an honour to have Anglia Ruskin University on board as our major sponsor for the 2024 awards, as it’s such an important part of our own remit to encourage and support the next generation of award winners. We’re also excited to welcome VineFX as the category sponsor for Craft – Director, supporting exciting directorial voices in our region! We’re looking forward to celebrating at our awards ceremony in Cambridge on June 21st”.