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Powerful film wins prestigious award for film and television graduate

A º£½ÇÖ±²¥ graduate’s powerful film about a family’s tragic loss has earned a prestigious Royal Television Society award.

Kyle Russell's film Torn won the student drama category of the Regional Student Awards held earlier this year as part of the RTS North East and The Border annual awards. His film is a drama about a grieving family, told through the eyes of a young girl following the death of her twin brother.

Kyle, 21, who wrote and directed the film, said: 'This kind of loss is a traumatic time for all of the family, but I wanted to tell the story through the perspective of a young child. 'The idea for the story was inspired by my girlfriend Ellie Brown, whose brother died in an accident. Ellie was involved in the whole process, from helping me to develop the initial idea to giving feedback as it's something she has personally been through. She was really happy with the film and is proud of me winning the RTS award.' The RTS award judges said of Kyle’s film: 'Torn handles incredibly difficult subject matter with authenticity, sensitivity and maturity. It is impressively unclichéd and demonstrates real intelligence in visual storytelling. The direction of child actors and management of time shifts was especially impressive.' Kyle, who wrote and directed the film as part of his BA (Hons) Film and Television Production, worked on the project with course colleagues Freya Radford, who produced the film and Hristiyan Demerdzheiv, who was director of photography. Will Davies assisted with the sound recording.

Originally from Birmingham, Kyle chose to study at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ because of the course and facilities available. He said: 'The fact the courses are Skillset accredited really appealed and the facilities at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ are excellent.' He added: 'I was really shocked when I heard the film had been shortlisted for the award, but I’m really happy to win. It’s good to be recognised by the industry for my work.'

Having won a regional award, Kyle’s film now progresses to the RTS National Student Awards to be held in London later this year.

School of Arts & Media factfile º£½ÇÖ±²¥ is the only University in the Tees Valley offering art and design courses – everything from traditional pathways to new and innovative programmes in indie games, fashion and textiles.

All courses are based on the town centre campus in which there has recently been a £250m investment and international art gallery mima is now part of the University.

Graduates have gone on to top positions in companies such as Aston Martin, Philips, F1, Dreamworks and Marvel Comics. Contemporary partners include Dance City and Hyper Island.

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