Ulster University, Belfast, student Aidan Rafferty was a double winner at the RTS Northern Ireland Student Television Awards. He was part of the team that won the Comedy and Entertainment award for Real Lads of Lockdown – and the writer/director also took home the Craft Skills: Writing prize.

The judges said the film “wasn’t afraid to touch on the more serious aspects of the pandemic, while providing lots of laugh-out-loud moments – a great balance of comedy and pathos”.

Ulster University, Belfast, also triumphed in the Animation category with Sleeper, while Ulster University at Magee student Cathal Fitzpatrick bagged the Drama prize with A Hollow Tree.

Two Factual prizes were awarded: to Ulster University at Magee’s Malachy O’Hanlon for The Lone Sailor and to a team from Queen’s University Belfast for Technical Difficulties.

The ceremony was hosted by UTV journalist Sarah McKinley. Jannine Waddell, MD of Waddell Media, delivered the Joe McKinney Memorial Keynote Speech.

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RTS Northern Ireland Student Television Awards winners

Animation – Sleeper – Josh McAvoy, Eva Robinson, Sinéad Burns and Cathal Daniel Murphy, Ulster ­University, Belfast 

Comedy and Entertainment – Real Lads of Lockdown – Aidan Rafferty, Eve Drumm, Keelan Sexton, Gareth Rodgers, Ruairi Craig and Aaron Crilly, Ulster University, Belfast

Drama – A Hollow Tree – Cathal Fitzpatrick, Ulster University at Magee

Factual – The Lone Sailor – Malachy O’Hanlon, Ulster University at Magee – Technical Difficulties – Aisling Skillen, Andrew Ballentine, Lynn Porter, Oisin McCoy and Olga Weyrich, Queen’s University Belfast

Craft Skills: Writing – Real Lads of Lockdown – Aidan Rafferty, Ulster University, Belfast