Success at RTS Cymru Wales awards for USW students and graduates

Students and graduates of USW have been recognised in six categories at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Cymru Wales awards, which celebrate the very best content made by students and industry professionals during the past year.

Computer Animation graduates Tom Walters and Charlotte Cousins won the Undergraduate Animation award with their short film, The Closet. Critter Caper, by fellow Animation students Oliver Sharpe and Daisy Hill, was also shortlisted for the award.

Tom, who graduated in 2023, was the Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer, Lighting Artist, Technical Artist and compositor on The Closet. He said: “I really enjoyed creating and seeing my vision come to life, collaborating with other artists and being amazed by their work. Working on the film allowed me to gain a better understanding of all aspects of the filmmaking process and other artists’ specialities.

“Attending the awards was amazing and surreal – especially when Russell T Davies [writer of Doctor Who] asked me where he could watch the film! I’m very grateful to USW for this fantastic experience.”

Film student Charlie Grayson won both the Comedy and Entertainment award, and the Craft Award for Camera, for his film Penguin, while the Factual short form award was won by Bedwyr Hughes and Amy Owen for their film Holm Sweet Home.

MA Film (Directing) student Alexandros Kelepeshis won the Drama award for his film Black Veil, and MA Animation graduate Daniel Evans won the Craft Award for Sound for his film Amygdala.

Francesca Barbieri, who graduated from Performance & Media in 2017, won the award for Production Manager (Factual). Since her studies at USW Francesca has worked on numerous shows for the BBC, including The One Show, Wonders of the Celtic Deep and 54 Hours Under the Ground, as well as programmes for Channel 4, ITV and BBC Radio Wales.

Gareth Hutchinson, course leader for Computer Animation at USW, said: "It's fantastic news that a film from the BA Computer Animation course has won the Undergraduate Student Animation category at the RTS Wales Awards for the second year in a row. This is another great example of the quality creative output our students are capable of, and we wish the winning and nominated teams the very best of luck with their future careers from this very exciting start."

For more details on this year’s RTS Cymru Wales award winners, visit the awards website.