A Week Of Wins For National Film And Television School
This week the National Film and Television School celebrated success at multiple award ceremonies across fiction, documentary and science and natural history. The British Short Film Awards, Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam and the Grierson Awards all took place, crowning a raft of productions with graduate and student involvement.
Multiple graduation films made at the School were awarded at the British Short Film Awards on 7 November, including the emotional and funny Jellyfish and Lobster. Nominated in four categories, the film took home the coveted Jury Prize, editor Max Reynolds was awarded Best Editing and director Yasmin Afifi was also awarded Best Director.
2021 graduation film Requiem was nominated in six categories including Best Short Film, Best Director and Best Actress for its star Bella Ramsay (The Last of Us). The period film set against the backdrop of the witch trials was awarded Best Student Film.
Other graduate successes at the awards include Ebba Hult who was awarded Best Cinematography for her work on western drama The Golden West.
- NFTS successes at the British Short Film Awards include
BEST SHORT FILM
Muna (Editor Mdhamiri Á Nkemi)BEST BRITISH SHORT FILM
In Too Deep (DoP Tim Palmer)BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Middle Watch (Executive Producer Derek Hayes)BEST BRITISH DIRECTOR
Yasmin Afifi - Jellyfish and Lobster
(Producer Elizabeth Rufai; Cinematographer Linda Wu; Production Designer Gili Ofri; Production Manager Diana Duah; Assistant Director Daniel Pachalski; Focus Puller Gemma Mancinelli; 2nd AC Benjamin Hart; Loader Tania Garcia de Pedro; Production Sound Mixer Callum Bentley; 1st Assistant Sound Erin Millican; Editor Max Reynolds; Sound Designer/Dubbing Mixer Conor Thompson; Composer Catherine Hillier; Colourist/Online Editor Vanessa Aparicio)BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Golden West (DoP Ebba Hult)BEST EDITING
Max Reynolds - Jellyfish and LobsterSTUDENT CATEGORY - BEST STUDENT FILM
Requiem (Director Emma J. Gilbertson; Producer Michelle Brøndum; Screenwriter Laura Jayne Tunbridge; Cinematographer Joseph Guy; Production Designer Freddie Burrows; Assistant Directors Charlotte Peachey, Felix Cole; Production Manager Fabiana Tesauro; Editor Oli Bauer; Production Sound Mixer Luise F. Guertler; 1st Assistant Sound Alexander Langner; Sound Designer/Dubbing Mixer Miles Sullivan; Composer Madison Willing; VFX Supervisor Pietro Abati; VFX Producer Jake Calcutt; 3D Artist Terence Hughes; FX Artists Jake Calcutt, Wu Jun Yi; Compositors Siân Drury, Sam Pearson, Pietro Abati, Carina Carlsson; Colourist/Online Editor Marco Valerio Caminiti)
The Grierson Awards are one of the most prestigious documentary awards in the world and, at the ceremony on 9 November, National Film and Television School graduate Mia Harvey won the All3Media Award for her incredibly moving graduation documentary With Woman. The win marked the ninth year that an NFTS graduate has taken home this award since the category started in 2011!
The awards also saw NFTS graduate involvement across ten of the 18 categories. Wins included Best Single Documentary for Lyra, directed by Alison Millar and edited by Chloe Lambourne, Best Natural History or Environmental Documentary for Big Oil vs the World, with music composed by Louis Dodd and Best Music Documentary for Moonage Daydream with Dialogue & Crowd Editor Jens Petersen and Sound Effects Editor Louise Burton.
- NFTS successes at the Grierson Awards include
BEST SINGLE DOCUMENTARY - DOMESTIC
Lyra (Director Alison Millar; Editor Chloe Lambourne)BEST SINGLE DOCUMENTARY - INTERNATIONAL
A House Made of Splinters (Editor Michael Aaglund)BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS
Retrograde (UK Production Services/Production Management Esteban Frost)BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Moonage Daydream (Dialogue & Crowd Editor Jens Petersen; Sound Effects Editor Louise Burton)BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
The Real Mo Farah (Sound Department Stuart Thompson)BEST HISTORY DOCUMENTARY & BEST DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland (Editor (parts 1 & 5) Simon Sykes)BEST NATURAL HISTORY OR ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY
Big Oil vs the World (Composer Louis Dodd)BEST CINEMA DOCUMENTARY
All That Breathes (Composer Roger Goula; Editor Charlotte Bengtsen)ALL3MEDIA BEST STUDENT DOCUMENTARY
With Woman (Director/Producer/Camera Mia Harvey; Production Manager Diana Duah; Production Manager Sophie Emma Esslemont; Editor Yu-Pu Pon; Sound Editor/Dubbing Mixer/Composer Luke Barnfather; Colourist/Online Editor Mara Ciorba)
Several NFTS Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA students and graduates attended Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam last weekend, immersing themselves in wonderful science and natural history films, networking, masterclasses and pitching opportunities.
At the Flamingo Award Ceremony on 4 November NFTS graduates won in two categories; Robin Fisher won Best Short Film for his graduation film The Halcyon Days and Hannah Alexander took home the Best Newcomer Award for her graduation film Creatures of the Kaleidoscope. Student Kirsten Slemint's film HaMidbar was also nominated for Best Short and Best Independent Film.
The National Film and Television School would like to offer a massive congratulations to all of our graduates involved in productions across these three amazing award ceremonies.
To find out more about how you could train to make award-winning productions with one of the world’s best film schools, visit nfts.co.uk/places-available and start your course as soon as January 2024!