Salford students win seven gongs at RTS North West Student Awards

On a dominant night for the University, Salford students won in three out of the five main categories and picked up four of the five craft awards available.

It marks a third successive year of unparalleled success after our students won in every category in 2023 and 2022, and it is the sixth successive year that Salford has won at the prestigious event.

Our winners in the main categories were:

• Best Drama – Trapped! ­– Kuba Glodi, Daniel Herranz-Carr, Archie Baker, Conor Gallagher and Jake Perret
• Best Entertainment & Comedy – Bricked Up – Max James Walker, Xavier Sonski, Tom Carrick, Emily Lunson, Aaran Lee, Diana-Maria Milhailescu and Jeanette McNichol
• Best Factual – Short Form – Grindadráp – Harry Warner

Our winners in the craft categories were:

• Best Editing – Two Worlds Apart – Francis Kelly
• Best Sound – Coeden Meinir – Jared Foakes and Sam Rogers
• Best Production Design – Marla – Eleanor O’Donoghue and Josh Hadley
• Best Camera Work – The Sea – Harriet Franks

This is the third award that Trapped! has picked up in recent weeks after it was named Best Overall National Student Film and also won Best Sound at the National Association for Higher Education in the Moving Image Nation Student Awards. The film tells the story of two men who seek refuge in a flat after fleeing from the police and end up in a web of drug operations.

Bricked Up is a fast-paced, gritty caper which follows the character of Milo who wakes up to a kilo of cocaine in his recycling bin and is then thrust into a race against time to return it to a notorious drug lord.

Grindadráp is a short documentary that looks at the controversial practice of whaling in the Faroe Islands. Over Harry’s two-part documentary, he meets and hears from some of the protagonists involved in the centuries-old tradition. 

Lyndon Saunders, Senior Lecturer and Subject Group Head for Broadcast Media said: "Another stellar year for Salford graduates at the RTS North West Awards.

"It is music to ears to see our talented students recognised, not just in the awards taken home on the night but by the sheer number nominated across the categories.

“I was particularly chuffed for Harriet Franks, for her Best Camera Work award. Behind the camera people are often quiet, brilliant individuals and so for her to receive special recognition was the icing on the cake; something that the event is so good at championing. My thanks to the Royal Television Society.”

A former student also picked up a national award last night as BA Journalism: Broadcast graduate Ellie Hayns was crowned the Student Journalist of the Year at the Commercial Radio News Awards at Sky’s London headquarters. Fellow course alumni Sophie Green and Charlotte Linnecar were previously shortlisted for awards on the night. 

Ellie, who now works in public relations at the Little Red Rooster agency, was a former Broadcast Journalist of the Year at the University and was a runner-up in the 2024 Broadcast Journalism Training Council Awards.