Press Release
Date: Thursday 02 April 2010 (NR/13/10)
Young Film-Makers in the Spotlight
Local students scooped top film awards in Derry/Londonderry and Belfast at the annual Foyle Film Festival CCEA Moving Image Arts Awards Showcase sponsored by City of Derry Crystal.
A total of 22 films produced by A-level students for their summer 2010 Moving Image Arts course were screened by Cinemagic at the QFT in Belfast and by the Foyle Film Festival at the Orchard Cinema in Derry/Londonderry on 25 and 26 November.
The screenings are an annual highpoint for Moving Image Arts students and this year had the best ever turnout, with over 350 students and teachers in attendance. The attractive cut glass awards were presented for outstanding achievement in three main categories: AS film, A2 film and Best Animated Film.
From a gripping psychological thriller to a comic animation featuring a flying canine superhero, students really stretched their creative abilities this year, offering audiences an entertaining and inspiring visual feast.
Ingrid Arthurs, Subject Officer for Moving Image Arts at CCEA, and judge, commented:
CCEA’s Moving Image Arts course offers students a unique and exciting opportunity to express their ideas creatively and it is fantastic that we are able to showcase their achievement in such a public forum, where these ideas can be shared and appreciated by a wider audience. Moving Image Arts at GCSE level has just been launched so we are looking forward to seeing the standard of work rise even further as the subject continues to grow.
Speaking after the awards Bernard McCloskey, Head of Education with Northern Ireland Screen, and a member of the judging panel, commented:
The judges were really impressed by the high standard this year. Yet again, Moving Image Arts students have created a wide range of films that display creativity, ingenuity and a real understanding of the art of filmmaking. I want to congratulate all the students and their teachers for the hard work they have displayed up to this point.
Martin Melarkey, Nerve Centre Director, added:
A key objective of Moving Image Arts is to support the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers. From the outstanding talent and imagination on display in these short films, it certainly seems as if this ambition is being fulfilled.
Additional Information
CCEA Moving Image Arts Award Winners
Category 1: AS film
Winner: Ronnie McQuillan (Hazelwood Integrated College) for his comic modern day parable, ‘Easy Come Easy Go’.
Category 2: A2 film
Winner (joint): David McCrea (Wallace High School) for his sensitive portrait of homelessness, ‘A Type of Providence’; and Stuart Webster (Wallace High School) for his psychological thriller, ‘Second Sight’.
Category 3: Best Animated Film
Winner: Ashleigh O'Brien (Sullivan Upper), for her stop-motion animated film ‘Dignity for Dogs’, featuring a flying canine superhero.
Special Achievement award
Winner: Sarah Ward (Thornhill College), for her outstanding Post Production work in ‘An Teorainn’, a film set during the Second World War which featured impressive use of CGI effects.
Background to MIA
Introduced in 2004, Moving Image Arts is an applied CCEA A-Level course which offers a hands-on and creative approach to the teaching of the moving image. Now also available at GCSE level, MIA gives students the opportunity to produce their own creative film portfolios, offering a wide range of opportunities to develop creativity, digital literacy and enterprise skills.
Over 80 schools are currently teaching the course at A-Level, including 20 schools from outside Northern Ireland. So far 30 schools now offer the new course at GCSE.
Media enquiries to Ruth Maguire on (028) 9026 1216, Mobile 07796947993. E mail rhmaguire@ccea.org.uk
ENDS
Note to Editors
CCEA is the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment.
CCEA places learners and those who have a concern for their educational and personal development at the forefront of its thinking. CCEA's mission is:
"To enable the full potential of all learners to be achieved and recognised"
What we do
CCEA is a unique educational body in the UK , bringing together the three areas of curriculum, examinations and assessment.
Advising Government – on what should be taught in Northern Ireland ’s schools and colleges.
Monitoring Standards – ensuring that the qualifications and examinations offered by awarding bodies in Northern Ireland are of an appropriate quality and standard.
Awarding Qualifications
– as Northern Ireland’s leading awarding body we offer a diverse range of qualifications, such as GCSEs, including the new GCSE Double Award specifications in vocational subjects, GCE A and AS levels, Entry Level Qualifications, and Graded Objectives in Modern Languages.
- CCEA also offers a range of Awards and Certificates in Education, Training and Skills (ACETS) targeted at learners who want to get
the knowledge, understanding and skills needed
to hit the ground running in the world of work.
