NFTS Celebrates Big Weekend of Wins at Annie, BAFTA and Golden Reel Awards
It’s been an incredibly memorable weekend for multiple teams of National Film and Television School graduates as they brought home three prestigious awards for their work on 2021 NFTS animation films!
The distinguished Annie Awards kicked off on Saturday, recognising excellence in animation in film and television with two NFTS films nominated in the Best Student Film category, A Film About A Pudding and Night Of The Living Dread. With narration by the brilliant Stephen Fry, stop motion short Night of the Living Dread took home the win - a fantastic achievement. This is the third win for the NFTS in 10 years since the category started in 2013, marking it out as the film school with the most wins. Our congratulations go to both teams!
Night of the Living Dread wins best student film pic.twitter.com/KXiIFkzA1r
— AnnieAwards (@AnnieAwards) March 13, 2022
Sunday had us glued to our screens and refreshing our Twitter feeds waiting to hear if either of the two NFTS Animations nominated in the British Short Animation category at the 75th EE BAFTAs would take home the iconic golden mask. The graduate teams for Night Of The Living Dread and Do Not Feed The Pigeons sat in the audience, dressed to the nines eagerly awaiting the result. Soon it was the Pigeons team taking to the stage to accept this incredible award. You can view both of these films in full on BAFTA's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/c/bafta/videos
Last but by no means least, the MPSE Golden Reel Awards were also held on Sunday. With an incredible six out of eight nominations in the Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Student Film (Verna Fields Award) category being NFTS films, we were already so proud of our Sound Design students Grace Wong (Build Me Up), Joe De-Vine (Do Not Feed The Pigeons), Dominika Latusek (The Many Faces Of Ava), Miles Sullivan (Night Of The Living Dread), Zoltán Kadnár (Other Half) and Antek Rutczunski (Pressure) for leading the way. In keeping with the continued success of NFTS Animations this weekend, Grace Wong was announced the winner for her work on Build Me Up, making it the seventh successive win for NFTS Sound Design at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards!
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing: Verna Fields Student Award
— MPSE (@MPSEGold) March 14, 2022
Congratulations to the team from Build Me Up!#BuildMeUp #MPSE #GoldenReelAwards pic.twitter.com/NHe49e5k4h
NFTS Head of Animation Robert Bradbrook said of the wins: "What is lovely about the recent successes is the amazing diversity of the animations that have been nominated and winning prestigious awards. They range from drawn to stop-motion, narrative to experimental, and everything between them. But each communicate wonderful personal stories in unique and emotionally engaging ways.”
Everyone at the NFTS would like our student team to know how proud we are of their incredible achievements. The 2021 graduation films were made under extreme challenges due to the pandemic and we are thrilled to see them receive the recognition they deserve!
Applications are open for both the National Film and Television School Directing Animation MA and Sound Design MA. Apply today to make award-winning work and create your future with us.