Celebrating student talent at Sparkies Awards

Published on 16, July, 2025

Once again, the University of Sunderland has celebrated the hard work and creativity of its media students at this year’s Sparkies awards.

Every year, the Sparkies showcase the talent, success and effort of undergraduate and postgraduate students from across the University’s media courses through a range of categories including audio, post-production and sustainability.

University alumni Bobbi Bunker and Jay Sykes presented the awards at the University’s Cinema in the MediaCentre on St. Peter’s campus.

Bobbi, who studied Media Production at the University and won Best Audio Documentary at last year’s awards, said: “It felt like a full circle moment coming back to campus to host the Sparkies. It was brilliant to be able to give recognition to the graduates and be reminded of the amazing talent that is in our region.”

The winners were:

• Best Undergraduate Creative Project- Georgie Woodburn 
• Best Critical Analysis / Research Project- Libby Pollard 
• Best Student Experience Project- CineClub Podcast 
• EDI / Sustainability Champion - Julia Belz 
• Best Contribution to Spark- Granger Smith 

• Best Undergraduate Newcomer- Grace Oley 
• Best Overall Postgraduate Project (Audio)- Culture House Animation Partnership 
• Best Overall Postgraduate Project (Film & TV)- ‘Hair’
• Postgraduate Student of the Year (Film & TV) - Ifigeneia Beli 
• Postgraduate Student of the Year (Audio)- Tanya Trayanovich 
• Undergraduate Student of the Year- Adewunmi Adeoye 

• Postgraduate Project Sustainability Award- The Snakebite Anthology 
• Best Audio Documentary- How Healthy is Too Healthy? 
• Best Audio Drama- Verander  
• Best Podcast- Lost in Time: Gazza 
• Best Sound Design- Jak Molineux  
• Best Editing- Maisie McFarlane   
• Best Cinematography- Salome Caiza Salcedo 
• Best Live Production- Sportscene 
• Best Script- Kim Hoem & Maggie Barksby 
• Best Factual Film - Automated Horizons 
• Best Non-Factual Film- No Applause 
• Best Commercial Project - ‘Lane 7’
• Best Overall Undergraduate Project- Embers 

• Best Producer / Director- Iestyn Jones & Myah Rahman 
• all3media Placement Award - Harry New and Ella Jackson 
• Student of the Year - Mrunali Kalbhor 

Lee Hall, Head of School of Media and Creative Industries at the University, said: “Frankly, our students are all superstars and deserve accolades for their brilliant work. The Sparkies shine a spotlight on some of our talented future media stars - and at the same time help to inspire others to keep striving. 

“It's a particular pleasure to bring the awards in house after two brilliant events at The Fire Station. The Media Centre Cinema, refurbished at the start of the academic year, is the perfect place to show off brilliant content and it was wonderful to welcome family, friends and well-wishers.”

If you're interested in studying Media Production at the University of Sunderland, you can find out more information about it here.

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