The National Film and Television School (NFTS) scooped four postgraduate prizes at the Royal Television Society Students Awards (RTS), which was held at the BFI Southbank on Friday 3rd June, winning the Comedy and Entertainment, Drama, Open and Sound categories.
This is the fifth year in a row that the NFTS has won the postgraduate Comedy and Entertainment award - and our seventh win in this category in the past eight years!
The RTS is Britain's leading forum for television and related media and the student awards is the only event of its kind to celebrate work for television by undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The winners were announced at a ceremony chaired by Phillip Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and hosted by comedian, Mark Dolan and the nominated films will be available to watch on Sky Arts On Demand later this year.
The Winners:
The award for ‘Postgraduate Comedy and Entertainment’ went to Monster Hunters, which is directed by Brigitta Szaszfai and written by Jonathan Dakin. Both Brigitta and Jonathan graduated this year from the NFTS Producing and Directing Television Entertainment course. The judges said that Monster Hunters“… had the most potential to turn into a long-running TV hit… fresh, funny and supremely confident.”
The award for ‘Postgraduate Drama’ went to rally driving drama, Group B, which is directed and co-written by Nick Rowland (an NFTS Directing Fiction grad) and produced by Alexandra Breede (an NFTS Producing grad). The judges commented that Group B is “a very well executed film with great performances… The filmmakers showed great energy and commitment to this truly gripping drama.”
The ‘Postgraduate Open’ Category was won by Crunchy, which is directed by Simon Cartwright (NFTS Directing Animation grad) and produced by Jacob Thomas (NFTS Producing grad) and Sarah Evans (NFTS Production Management grad). Crunchy is a parody of a cereal commercial for Action for Sugar, in which a cuddly mascot finds out first-hand what a high sugar diet can lead to. The judges said that Crunchy is “an excellent collaboration between all departments to create a wry, clever piece. It gets across its message effectively through excellent attention to detail, strong visuals and well-conceived subversion of the setting, drawing in the viewers and then shocking them.”
The ‘Postgraduate Sound’ award went to animation, Fulfilament, which is directed and co-written by Rhiannon Evans (NFTS Directing Animation grad), produced by Alexandra Breede (NFTS Producing grad) and the sound is edited by Matis Rei (NFTS Sound Design for Film and Television grad). The judges commended the “incredible detail of sound design and score involved to create the world and characters was wonderfully handled.”
Applications are open now for a wide range of television and filmmaking courses at the NFTS including the Producing and Directing Television Entertainment and Directing Animation MA courses, which have deadlines of July 7th. You can also welcome to come along to our open day for the Assistant Directing and Floor Managing Diploma on the 29th June at 10.30am.
Pictured are Jonathan Dakin and Brigitta Szaszfai (Monster Hunters)
