University of Westminster film talents bring home two Oscars

Two alumni from the University of Westminster achieved the highest film industry accolade by being announced winners at this year’s Oscars ceremony which took place in Los Angeles yesterday evening, 28 February 2015.

University of Westminster’s graduate, Asif Kapadia, won best Documentary Feature for the film Amy, about the late singer Amy Winehouse. The Oscar award comes just a couple of weeks after Asif Kapadia won a BAFTA for best documentary, as well as a Grammy for the Best Music Film category.

Kapadia’s documentary on Amy Winehouse uses archive footage to show how the singer channeled the struggles faced in her personal life into her music. Since graduating from the University of Westminster in 1994, Asif Kapadia has directed several award-winning films, including the 2010 documentary Senna which won the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011.
Asif Kapadia_Amy_poster

The short film, Stutterer, produced by film graduate Shan Christopher Ogilvie, won the best Live Action Short Film category. The film was produced by the University of Westminster graduate and founder of Bare Golly Films, Shan Christopher Ogilvie, which focuses on a young man with a severe stutter and his difficulties dating. Directed and written by Benjamin Clearly and co-produced by Serena Armitage, the short film has also recently won the Best Foreign Film prize at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and the Best Drama Award at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival. The film was made on an impressive shoestring budget of £5000.

The University of Westminster is a leading global centre for excellence in the arts and film production and has strong links with the film industry. Its Film BA Honours, taught at the Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design, is one of the best known film and television courses in the world, with an international reputation for its academic and practical teaching.

Check out Film-news.co.uk's interviews with the team prior to the Oscar nominations.