Chaired by Philip Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts, the awards recognise the best audiovisual work created by students across the UK and Republic of Ireland at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Awards are judged in six categories – Animation, Comedy & Entertainment, Drama, Factual, News and Short Feature.

In the undergraduate categories students from Kingston University, Arts University Bournemouth and The National Film School, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire will battle it out for the Undergraduate Animation award; while Edinburgh College of Art University and Middlesex University will go head-to-head for the Undergraduate Comedy & Entertainment title. The National Film School, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire also hopes to claim the Undergraduate Drama prize and will compete against University of Central Lancashire and the Royal Conservatoire Scotland.

University of Bolton, University of Stirling and University of Leeds have been shortlisted in the Undergraduate Factual category; while, for a second year running, University of Salford and University of Sheffield compete in the hotly contested Undergraduate News category, along with students from Nottingham Trent University. The nominees for the Undergraduate Short Feature include: University for the Creative Arts, Staffordshire University and Kingston University.

National Film and Television School leads the way in the postgraduate awards receiving ten nominations, including all three in the Postgraduate Comedy & Entertainment category. For the Postgraduate Animation accolade, National Film and Television School competes against the Royal College of Art. For the Postgraduate Drama award, it is up against The Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett University, and will fight it out with University College London for the Postgraduate Factual award. In the Postgraduate Short Feature, National Film and Television School is up against Bangor University.

Dublin Institute of Technology and University of Central Lancashire will compete for the Postgraduate News title.

In addition, to reward excellence in craft skills, undergraduate and postgraduate awards will be presented for camerawork, editing, production design and sound. Entries are not accepted for these categories and the prizes will be awarded at the judges’ discretion. One winning student will also receive the newly introduced Judges’ Award.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 22 June at the BFI Southbank. Click here to book.

Click here to see the full list of nominees.

Watch highlights from last year's awards, hosted by Katherine Ryan