RTS NI Announces Student Television Awards Shortlist For 2024

The Royal Television Society Northern Ireland (RTS NI) is delighted to announce the nominations for this year’s Student Television Awards, supported by Northern Ireland Screen and the Department for the Communities.

This will be the 11^th year of the RTS NI Student Awards and the event will be hosted by UTV reporter Nathan Hanna on Thursday 28^th March at 6.30pm, in the Black Box, Belfast with the Joe McKinney memorial keynote speech delivered by Fiona Campbell, Controller, Youth Audience, BBC iPlayer and BBC Three.

Sarah McCaffrey, Chair of the RTS NI said: “As an educational charity, the RTS NI Student Awards encourage, nurture, support and reward the talent, potential and enthusiasm of students in colleges and universities across Northern Ireland creating film and video content.

Aidan Browne, Chair of the RTS NI Students Awards said: “We received more than 30 entries for this year’s awards and I know the judges had a very difficult task selecting the shortlist we are announcing today.”

Bernard McCloskey, Head of Exhibition at Northern Ireland Screen said: “Northern Ireland Screen is delighted to be able to support these awards in partnership with RTS NI, which provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on and reward local emerging creative talent who will drive the industry forward.”

UTV Reporter Nathan Hanna, host of the RTS NI Student Awards 2024 says: “The RTS NI plays a huge role in supporting the next generation of content creators and winning one of these awards provides students with a prestigious accolade to help them with their future careers.”

The nominees for this year’s Awards are:

Animation Category

• Pure: Michael Doherty, Matthew Kerr and Christopher McCann from Ulster University, Belfast.
• Unseen – Alone In Space: Patrick Faulkner from Ulster University, Belfast.

Drama Category

• Spring is Sure to Follow: Andrew McAllister, Lucy Johnston, Lucy Maxwell, Jon-Marc Maguire, William Penneyand Dominic Small from Queen’s University Belfast.
• Saoirse: Jessica Banks, Aisling Carroll, Karl Castles and David Johnston from Queen’s University Belfast.
• When It Rains: Luke O’Grady and Marty Carlin from Ulster University, Belfast.

Entertainment and Comedy Drama Category

• Mantis Shrimp: Stella Skiadopoulou, Jiale Rui, Amy Lonergan, Harry Thompson and Dai Qingyongcuofrom Queen’s University Belfast.
• Soap N’Pie: Catherine Osborne, Luke Galbraith, Matthew Ardies, Danny de Vecchis, Aaron Connolly, Jamie Edgar, Rab McPhee, Dean Wilson, James Ardis, Jamie Powell, Nathan Toland and Joel Rafferty from Belfast Metropolitan College.

Factual – Short Form Category

• Being Punk: Haoyue Hu, Shanshan Qiu and Jean Watt from Queens University Belfast.
• On The Edge: Nathan Edgar from Ulster University, Coleraine Campus.
• Above Par: Harry Thompson, Olivia Peden, Luke Darby, Owen Hogg and Emma Harrisson from Queens University Belfast.
• Baltic: Stella Skiadopoulou, Padraigin Meighan, Stephen Linkens, Jiale Rui and Dai Qingyongcuo from Queen’s University Belfast.

The winners of these Awards will go forward to the national RTS Student Media Awards in London in June and will also be invited to this year’s RTS NI Programme Awards in November 2024.