The prestigious award, now open to entries, celebrates an outstanding technologist or engineer of the future and accepts submissions from individuals in the early stages of their career across broadcast or its related industries.
David Nath – the co-founder of Story Films – picked up the Director award, while Joe Carey won the Editing prize. Nath’s script for the programme was taken verbatim from the police interview recordings of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who shot a fleeing burglar dead in 1999. The judges described it as a “truly exciting piece of television, so well done technically and very well cast”.
“The standard of entries for 2019 was very high – several jurors said that you could ‘broadcast that tomorrow’ about many of the films we watched,” said Aradhna Tayal, the Chair of the awards.
“Many seized the opportunity to use their work as a means of challenging and addressing real-life, taboo topics,” she added. “The jurors were in agreement that the entries this year demonstrated the ways in which art can be both important and meaningful.”
The winners of the RTS Cymru Awards have now been announced. At a ceremony at the University of South Wales on February 6th, the winners of the Student awards and the two new industry awards (Newcomer and Industry Breakthrough Awards) were revealed by hosts Matt Lissack and Polly James.
Chair of judges Lisa Hazlehurst, who is head of Lion Television in Scotland, unveiled the categories and criteria at the launch event.
She also announced a new category for writers to “recognise the wealth of writing talent in Scotland. The judges will be looking for originality, innovation, style and creativity.”
A number of winners from the 2018 awards attended the event and shared their experiences of landing an RTS trophy.
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.
In the undergraduate categories, Kingston University picked up three awards including the Judges' Award, which went to Laymun. The film, which was created by Catherine Prowse and Hannah Quinn also secured the Undergraduate Animation Award; while Martha Halliday and Hannah McNally took home the Undergraduate Short Feature Award for Mm-Hmm.
“If you have a voice, you’ve got to use it for good,” the presenter claims emphatically. “I find myself restraining my contempt with my peers who don’t use their position creatively.”
Celebrities who express support in private, but refuse to speak out publicly, are neglecting the responsibilities and privileges their position gives them, he believes. “I just think, what do you do with your public platform? Apart from enjoying the limelight and collecting the money, what do you stand up for?
Aimed at engineers in the early stages of a career in broadcasting or related industries, the award celebrates a new wave of talent making its mark on the industry.
The grand prize is an all-expenses paid trip to the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2018 exhibition and conference in Amsterdam; the world’s leading media, entertainment and technology show.
The runner-up will receive the Coffey Award for Excellence in Technology and a technical book of their choice.
Chaired by Jane Muirhead (Managing Director of Raise The Roof Productions), the awards cover all forms of production in Scotland, recognising excellence and innovation across a range of genres and crafts.
RTS Award winner Michaela Coel sits down with us at the RTS Programme Awards 2018 to reflect on two years of success since winning the inaugural RTS Breakthrough Award in 2016.
Chewing Gum won three awards at the 2016 RTS awards, and has since gone on to win Baftas. The show is shown around the world, however it was Michaela's work on the recent series of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror that really shot her to international attention.
