Student film wins Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay at Solent Film and Media Awards

On Thursday, June 1, Solent University held its first-ever awards ceremony celebrating the works of the Film, TV and Media students from their final year. Set up like a mini-Oscars, Zsófia Bujáki, Peter Andráš, Yuka Nakazawa, Josh Hughes, Kitty Pilcher and Elias Highsmith, waited in anticipation to see their film receive nominations for six categories. Frequency is a thriller about a young girl whose curiosity leads her into dangerous situation with a mysterious voice through her toy walkie-talkie.

Director Zsófia wrote the script for Frequency back in her first year of university and decided to bring it to life for her final film. With added inspiration from the crew and lecturer Sebastian Lojo, it transformed into a full story ready to be shown on screen. However, the script itself was just as captivating and gripping to read and won Best Adapted Screenplay. She said, “I would like to express my and our crew’s gratitude towards everyone who helped us create this film and made it an unforgettable learning experience.”

Director Zsófia wrote the script for Frequency back in her first year of university and decided to bring it to life for her final film. With added inspiration from the crew and lecturer Sebastian Lojo, it transformed into a full story ready to be shown on screen. However, the script itself was just as captivating and gripping to read and won Best Adapted Screenplay. She said, “I would like to express my and our crew’s gratitude towards everyone who helped us create this film and made it an unforgettable learning experience.”

Through the other categories the crew cheered on all the winners, delighted to watch their course mates celebrate their win and acceptance speeches and the crew was elated. Zsófia thanked their lectures and spoke about how wonderful it was to see every other group’s films. She says, “I am personally very happy that our film had an impact on an audience, and I could engage in interesting conversations after the film’s screening with so many people.”

There was a large group of secondary crew that Producer Peter openly thanked for their collaborations and hard work and spoke to his parents at home in Slovakia in his native language. He says, “Making this whole project changed me professionally and personally, I can’t wait to see how far we can reach with this film.” Josh, who was the camera operator spoke to his mum for her love and support.

Head of Sound Elias gave recognition to the film’s composer Will McCarthy who he worked closely to create the music and an emotional thank you to his parents, and course mates for their open-mindedness, support, and resistance to societal transphobia; Elias stands as the representation of transgender individuals on the course and in the industry. He says “Winning was not something I expected, and the feeling was indescribable. I’m so proud of how far everyone including myself has come and it was a great way to finish off three very difficult years”.

Yuka was Director of Photography and thanked the camera department that worked alongside her and the crew for their support and also her parents in Japan. She said “Finally our efforts were rewarded. It was a great experience that I worked with this team. Each of us was working so hard, and so I did. These three years were a very precious time to me and I’m really glad that I could find mates who can learn from each other.”

Stephen Desmond, BA (Hons) Film Production’s Final-year Tutor, and Senior Lecturer, said: "We are so proud of all of our fantastic students. This year Frequency won ‘Best Film” at our awards ceremony which attests to the professionalism, superb talent and dedication of: Zsófia, Peter, Yuka, Josh, Kitty and Elias. They have really created an inspiring film that should do very well for them at festivals around the world”.

Frequency will now be starting its festival run with submission to the Aesthetica Film Festival, with the official selection announced in September 2023. The film was also screened at the Southampton Film Week Network Event at the City Eye on the June 13 where crew members were invited for a Q&A for the audience.