Learning On Screen names winners

The UK’s leading educational media productions were announced at the Learning on Screen awards at London’™s BFI Southbank

Organised by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC), an independent charity, Learning on Screen is the only UK awards celebrating excellence across moving image and related media in education. This year over 100 entries were received from more than 50 organisations, educating audiences on a diverse range of topics, from politics and finance to sanitation and astronomy.

Broadcasters, production companies, education providers, museum personnel and students attended the packed ceremony, with the winners receiving their awards from television presenter and author Lucy Worsley. As Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and author of four history books, Lucy is one of this country’s most high profile historians and is committed to making the UK’s cultural heritage accessible to all.

Ian Wall, Chair of the Learning on Screen judging panel and founder of Film Education, said the entries themselves exemplified the power of the screen to educate: ‘Competition amongst the entries was fierce and every category generated debate and lively discussion. It is clear from this year’s entries that education on screen is alive and kicking and that we have some very interesting young filmmakers to watch out for in the future. So many of the entries this year were excellent examples of the power of the screen to engage and educate audiences, whether they be the general public or children and young people.’

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the BUFVC running the Learning on Screen awards, and also sees updates to the categories, including doubling the number of the Student Production Awards. Each year, the Learning on Screen student production awards celebrate the next generation of filmmakers, recognising their incredible achievements and shining a light on tomorrow’s talent.  Along with their award trophies, the student winners also receive a 12-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, provided by Adobe. Liz Wilkins, Regional Marketing Manager for Adobe, said of the awards: “Adobe recognise that the Learning on Screen awards, organised by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC), are an important initiative for celebrating excellence in film and moving image in learning and teaching. Adobe is proud to be sponsoring the student production awards at Learning on Screen, which helps the next generation of young filmmakers gain recognition for their outstanding talent and achievements.”

Categories and winners

The Educational Multimedia Award, a category for multimedia content that has been created to educate a general or a specific target audience, was awarded to the National Theatre for their app 50 Years of the National Theatre, which celebrates the organisation’s history in a clear and engaging way. The jury was impressed by the high quality content and extent to which this app used its medium to its full potential.

The General In-House Production Award was a new category for 2014for productions on any topic that were primarily produced by an individual, team or unit that is permanently employed by an education institution. Solent Productions (Southampton Solent University) and Take 2 Afrika won this award for their outstanding documentary, The Last Taboo, which aimed to raise awareness of global sanitation challenges, a rarely discussed topic that the winners opened up to a wider audience.

Three awards for Courseware and Curriculum were awarded on the night, which celebratecontent created for specific target groups of students who need to obtain particular knowledge or skills. The Non-Broadcast Courseware and Curriculum production winner was CTVC Ltd and TrubeTube.co.uk for their well-written and informative documentary, The Magdalenes. The In-House Production Courseware and Curriculum award went to the University of Derby Media Production and Support Team for their insightful production How to see your brain working – Measuring electrical activity using EEG. The Courseware and Curriculum Broadcast Award was given to the BBC production The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time: From Page to Stage. This BBC Two Learning Zone programme was chosen unanimously by the jury for its clever use of source material and structural execution.

The General Education Non-Broadcast Award, a category for general factual productions for use in formal or informal learning, went to Pukka Films Ltd with Cognitive Media for Keeping on even keel – the role of the Bank of England, a set of short videos on the Bank’s monetary policy, commended by the jury for its engaging content.

The BBC production Pain, Pus and Poision: The Search for Modern Medicines (Episode 1, Pain) won the General Education Broadcast Award, a category for programmes produced for a general audience with significant educational benefit, and also the Premier Award, a prestigious prize given to only one production from all across all Learning on Screen entries. This outstanding documentary manages to explain difficult concepts clearly to a general audience. Noted for its excellent graphics, well-researched content and perfectly chosen presenter, the jury unanimously agreed that this entry was well deserving of these awards.

This year saw four Student Production Awards, twice as many as in 2013. These awards are not judged as educational material, but rather for their quality of production and innovation.

The Undergraduate and Further Education Documentary Award went to Žavinta KarsokaitÄ— from the University of the Creative Arts for her production Promised Bread, praised for providing an insight into individual moments of grief without being intrusive.

The winner of the Student Production Postgraduate Documentary Award was Konstantinos Georgousis from the National Film and Television School for his observational documentary on the Greek neo-Nazi party, The Cleaners, which was noted by the jury for being “riveting in its awfulness”.

The Student Production Undergraduate and Further Education Award, for productions on any theme made by students as part of a course, was awarded to Jonas Zimmerman from the Westminster Film School for his powerful film Moonlighting, noted by the jury for its memorable and engaging story. This was a truly outstanding category with many talented and adventurous entries; consequently, the jury decided to also award a special commendation to Henry Gale from City of Bath College for his simple and effective animation Psychosis is Nothing Like a Badger.

The Student Production Postgraduate Award went to Kristina Yee from the National Film and Television Award for her production Miss Todd, described by the jury as a very ambitious project that was realised beautifully.

As well as the Premier Award which went to the BBC, a Special Jury Award was also presented to an entry that the jury felt was deserving of special recognition. This year the judges were especially impressed by the range of resources produced by the University of Leicester, which capitalised on a significant historical British event, the discovery of the remains of King Richard III. Over many years now, their in-house team have consistently produced excellent materials that were of broadcast quality and this was particularly evident this year.

View further details regarding the winners, nominees and award categories on the BUFVC website: https://bufvc.ac.uk/learningonscreen