A record number of film buffs packed Edinburgh’s Filmhouse on Thursday night (9th July) to see Queen Margaret University’s annual Film and Media Degree Show.

An audience of over 200 people, including Fiona Hyslop, cabinet secretary for Culture, enjoyed a wonderfully varied selection of short promotional films, dramas and documentaries work from QMU’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th year film and media students.

The 10 shorts made by QMU’s students were this year’s cream of the crop, covering a diverse range of subjects and genres. The documentaries profiled an award winning artist, took the audience on a musical journey to the streets of Morocco and showed people how to build an Earthship. The dramas featured characters dealing with the effects of grief, poverty, illness and… junk mail.

QMU Film & Media students Graham Wallace, Linzi Wilson and Jordan Phillips

QMU Film and Media student, Jordan Phillips, won the Bruce Thomson College Access Award (Bruce Thomson Memorial Fund), and fellow student, Linzi Wilson, won the University’s Media, Communication and Performing Arts (MCPA) Photography Prize on the night.

The audience also got their chance to cast their votes for best film, which was won by QMU Film and Media student, Graham Wallace. Graham also won the Bruce Thomson Production Dissertation Prize (Bruce Thomson Memorial Fund) for his film – ‘Float’.

The Bruce Thomson prizes were awarded in memory of Bruce Thomson, a lecturer at QMU for many years, who sadly died in 2001. Bruce was passionate in his support of students, especially those from a non-traditional educational background. He also had a great love of the visual arts. The two prizes from his memorial fund reflect these areas.
Graham Drysdale, Lecturer in Screenwriting & Digital Filmmaking at QMU, said: “We think this was one of our strongest ever screenings, with record numbers turning out to see our students’ work at its best.

“This event is always a highlight in the QMU calendar as it provides a platform for us to celebrate creativity, as well as allowing students to unveil films they have worked on over the last year. It’s important to our students to see their work on the big screen. There’s nothing like hearing and seeing an audience respond to your film in the way you hoped when you first conceived of the idea.”

The 2015 Queen Margaret University Film & Media Degree Show was organised by Film and Media student, Michelle Hanzelova.