On Saturday 26th of February, we went to the RTS North East and Border awards.

After a brief hiatus due to the covid pandemic the awards returned to the Hilton at Gateshead. It was so lovely to be reunited with so many talented filmmakers, commissioners and producers from across the North East once again. 

The awards were hosted by the hilarious Jason Cook and featured a performance from Kema Kay. 

We were surprised to find out that our short film She Lives Alone was nominated and we couldn’t quite believe that we won the category for Best Drama under 100K, which was sponsored by Fulwell73, a company we admire greatly. 

It was also particularly lovely to see Graeme Thompson pick up the Tony Pilgrim award recognising all the incredible work he’s done to champion tv and film talent in the North East, and Alyson Gwyn from NFM collect the award for outstanding contribution to the region, in recognition of her work to bring BBC commissioning opportunities to the North East. 

The evening itself was a lot of fun, reconnecting with people in person and not on zoom, and celebrating all the incredible talent we have in the region. 

The journey for She Lives Alone has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. For a period of time we weren’t sure we would receive the funding we needed to make the film, we then had to navigate a tricky shoot, followed by the challenges of doing post production remotely because of Covid pandemic lockdowns. Following a successful festival run, the film was then acquired by streaming platform Alter, which introduced the film to a whole new audience across the world. 

“Coming away from the RTS awards in February with the award for Best Drama Under £100K was such an overwhelming and unexpected surprise. I think, on behalf of everyone who worked so hard to make She Lives Alone, we are so grateful and humbled the film has received this recognition.” - Lucy Rose, Directer and Writer of She Lives Alone.

We were so proud to conclude the journey for She Lives Alone in front of our peers and our film community here in the North East. We’re especially grateful to the Royal Television Society committee and judges for recognising the hard work of all our amazing cast and crew, and for putting on a great evening. 

This blog was written by Atticus Carter.