News / 06 Mar 2025
Animation students win five awards at Royal Television Society Student Awards
BA (Hons) Animation
BA (Hons) Animation students won five awards at the regional Royal Television Society Yorkshire Student Awards.
The Royal Television Society (RTS) Programme Awards are one of the gold standard awards in the TV industry, showcasing talent across all genres in British television. Prizes are awarded regionally.
A total of thirteen BA (Hons) Animation students worked on the two shortlisted and three winning films for the RTS Yorkshire Student Awards.
By competition category, the shortlisted and winning films are:
Animation
Winner: Karina Young, Vikrant Dyal, Sami Alam, Gabrielle Mosquito and Troy Wachira, with their animation: 'A Perfect Meal.'
The judges called Perfect Meal “one of the best entries” they'd ever seen, that was “TV ready” and featured a “brilliant use of graphics”.
Shortlisted: Wing Yan Au-Yeung and Amaniwa Haruka, with their animation: 'Last Wish.'
Factual: Short Form
Winner: Dean Hamami, Drin Rrahmani and Troy Wachira with their animation: 'Clucked.'
Judges called Clucked “engaging and funny."
Shortlisted: Olivia Stevens and Charlotte Smith, with their animation: 'LAIKA.'
Saving the Planet
Winner: Kara Harvey-Hill, Annalena Ulvee and Sophia Vypalova-Simon, with their animation: 'Go Fish!'
Judges found 'Go Fish!' “thought-provoking and informative.”
Best Craft or Production Design
Winner: Dean Hamami, Drin Rrahmani and Troy Wachira with their animation: 'Clucked.'
Winner: Kara Harvey-Hill, Annalena Ulvee and Sophia Vypalova-Simon, with their animation: 'Go Fish!'
"The course team are incredibly proud of all of our students who were shortlisted for and won awards this year. It's testament to their ability to tell compelling stories through animation. It demonstrates they have some amazing animation skills that are research informed and attained through lots of very, very hard work. We can't wait for the outcome of the RTS National Student Awards.'"
Michael Smith, BA (Hons) Animation Course Leader
"It is an absolute honour to be nominated alongside many other talented filmmakers. I want to thank Kurt Caswell, the author of Laika's Window especially, for taking the time to sit down in an interview with us in our research process.'
Olivia Stevens, BA (Hons) Animation student
'Clucked' also won Best Animation at the NAHEMI National Student Film Awards.
"Seeing Clucked get selected for both RTS and NAHEMI awards has been surreal. Working on this film was a fascinating and insightful experience, learning more about the harsh realities of the poultry industry and finding a way to shed light on it through animation. We had so much fun bringing it to life, and it’s incredible to see it getting this kind of recognition. Big thanks to both RTS and NAHEMI nominators for this opportunity and congratulations to all other selected films—we can’t wait to see them!"
Dean Hamami and Drin Rrahmani, BA (Hons) Animation students
Now they have won at regional level, students will attend the RTS National Student Awards ceremony at the The Magic Circle, London later this year to see if their films have won at national level.