York St John students win prestigious Royal Television Society award

Film & Television students from York St John University won a major award at the Yorkshire Royal Television Society Awards (RTS) Student Television Awards at a glittering ceremony on Tuesday 19 November held at York Racecourse.

Two films made by Documentary students from the Film & Television department were nominated for the RTS Student Television Award for Best Factual Film with the documentary ‘Exploring the Unexplained – A Journey into Spiritualism’ hitting the jackpot.

Graduating students Brian Cantore, Caitlin Allport, Gemma Barker, Kate Houghton and Ella Riden were presented with the top prize by Kim Hopkins, leading documentary filmmaker. Commenting on the film the judging panel said:
“Putting yourselves at the centre of a documentary is always something of a gamble for any production team, but (the judges felt) this was one gamble that really paid off. The result was a film which was innovative, engaging and honest.”

Robin Small, Senior Lecturer in Film & Television Production and the group’s tutor, added:
“The decision to put the crew’s experience as the subject of the film was both brave and creative - the students did well to tackle the ethical issues implicit in their film about a York Spiritualist church. Staff at York St John University are thrilled for the well-deserved winners of this prestigious industry award.”

Also nominated was the documentary ‘I Love you Bam-Bam’ by graduating students Kerry Abbott, Eleanor Wilson, Daniel Collinson, Robert Lumb and Bethan Forde, which came third in the Documentary category.

A hat trick of nominations came with the third prize in the Entertainment category going to Tom Whittle, Thom Gardner, Tom Copland and Oliver Dines for their programme ‘Open House’.

The RTS Student Television Awards recognise the best audiovisual work created by full- or part-time students as part of their course. Documentary students from York St John have regularly won awards, highlighting the strength of the course at York St John University.

The winning documentary ‘Exploring the Unexplained – A Journey into Spiritualism’ will now represent Yorkshire at the national RTS Student Television Awards held in London in May 2014.