Magnificent Seven for Bangor film makers at the RTS Cymru Awards

Films produced at Bangor University won a record seven awards at the Royal Television Society Cymru/Wales awards, held at the Royal College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

The successful film makers were Shafin Basheer and Kumara Gadda, both from India, Matt Evans from Valley, and Dion Jones from Caernarfon.

As well as winning awards for Best Postgraduate Drama (Between the Headphones by Matt Evans) and Best Postgraduate Fiction Production (Love of my Landscapes by Shafin Basheer), the four films from Bangor to be nominated all won Student Craft awards.

Dion Jones won the writing award for Y Lein: Friction Dynamics, and Kumara Gadda’s film, Chitti: The Missing Girl, won the prizes for camera work and sound. Matt Evans also won his second prize of the evening for the production design on Between the Headphones, as did Shafin Basheer for the editing on Love of my Landscapes.

This is the largest number of prizes won by one university in the history of these awards, that are held to celebrate all the activities of the television industry in Wales, and which has specific categories for student productions.

Boost

Dr Geraint Ellis of the School of Arts, Culture and Language said, “It was a wonderful evening, and everyone is so proud of these former students for what they have achieved. The films varied greatly in terms of their style and subject matter but the quality of all these productions was extremely high. I’m sure that this success will give these talented film makers a tremendous boost as they develop their careers, and it will be exciting to see what else they can achieve.”

One of the winners, Dion Jones, said, “I’ve wanted to tell the story of the Friction Dynamics strike since starting the course at Bangor. I’m hoping that winning this RTS award goes a long way towards demonstrating the potential there is to make this a feature length film for either TV or independent release. It’s a real piece of history that should not be forgotten.”

Shafin Basheer, who won two awards for his film Love of my Landscapes added, “As a young filmmaker, winning this award is a huge step in my career and I am more motivated to continue doing what I love – making films about nature and people.”

The films will now be in the running for the RTS Student Television awards, to be held in London at the end of June.