NUA student wins national film student award

A graduate of Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) won the Creative Film Making Award at the National Association for Higher Education and the Moving Image (NAHEMI) Student Awards on Wednesday night.

Alex Searle's award winning animated short.

Alex Searle (21), of Sprowston, graduated from NUA with a first class BA Animation degree earlier this year and entered his final piece of work from the course in the awards – a short animated film called 'What is Animation?'. Among the shortlisted competitors for the award were submissions by graduates of the National Film and Television School (NFTS) and also fellow NUA graduate Andrew Jackson.

The NAHEMI Student Awards recognise exceptional work produced by undergraduate and postgraduate students, from a selected programme of outstanding work produced by film, television and animation students from colleges and universities across the UK and Ireland. There are two special awards, Alex’s being for creativity and the other being for cinematography, which was awarded to NFTS postgraduate Lukasz Konopa.

Alex says: "Having already won the Critics' Choice Award at the Sunrise Festival earlier this year, I feel like I need to build a trophy cabinet! It was brilliant to win the NAHEMI Student Award, just amazing. One of my tutors was sitting in the audience and she knew I’d won but she didn’t let on so it came as a real surprise.

"The tutors at NUA have so much experience and the course leader does a great job of getting people in from industry to talk to students each week. Meeting people five years ahead of me gave me a sense that if they can do it so can I."

Students of BA Animation at NUA develop expertise in all aspects of traditional and digital 2D and 3D animation, sound design and editing. The course draws on the expertise of many leading animators to develop students' skills in the production of animation to professional standards.

Course Leader Jodie Wick says: "Alex's achievements represent the superb standard of this years graduate films. Each student engages in a rigorous period of development with consistent meetings and reviews by industry experts to ensure the work is of a professional quality. We pride ourselves in really focusing the student's skills to ensure they get the best possible opportunities beyond graduation. We are so pleased for Alex as this is recognition he truly deserves for a really fantastic film."