Local students pick up mediagongs at ‘tech’

The awards were billed as a showcase for top media students from some of Northern Ireland’s leading Colleges and Universities.

They celebrated the best work by creative and digital media students from North West Regional College (NWRC), Belfast Metropolitan College and the University of Ulster, which together form the NI Skillset Media Academy.

Hosted by the BBC’s Sarah Travers, and attended by a who’s who of leading professionals from the media industry, the event included the presentation of awards to students in categories which included moving image (drama, documentary and news), rich content (still photography and website design) and radio.

Local winners from North West Regional College (NWRC) included HND student Ryan McCombe who won the FE College Award for his rich media piece ‘Digitalism,’ described by the judging panel (which included representatives from Northern Ireland Screen, UTV and the BBC) as ‘young, fresh, well-edited, eye-catching and quick-moving,’ while fellow HND students took another top prize in the Undergraduate Category for the collaborative short film ‘The Cunningham’, which judges called ‘truly ambitious and brave!’