Student cinema society wins national award

A student film society at Coventry University has won a prestigious accolade at last weekend’s ‘Film Society of the Year’ awards, run annually by the British Federation of Film Societies (BFFS).

Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) beat off competition from rival cinema clubs at the universities of Warwick, Sheffield and Exeter to claim the ‘Best Student Cinema’ prize, impressing the judges with its range of activities, level of professionalism and its links with industry.

The award rounds off a successful year for CUEAFS, which in March saw the society play host to a leading international Asian film event at the University – the East Winds Film Festival – which attracted a host of industry luminaries including award-winning movie star Grace Huang.

Several students in the society also secured media accreditation for the Udine Far East Film Festival in April, travelling to Italy to interview actors and directors and write reviews for the popular UK film blog CineVue.

In another coup, the society recently secured its place as the home of a major film archive following the donation of five 35mm film prints worth around £6,000 from Terracotta, one of the UK’s leading distributors of Asian cinema.

The latest accolade, which was presented to CUEAFS during the 43^rd BFFS Film Society of the Year awards ceremony at the Institut Français in London, was awarded in recognition of the society’s work in promoting film culture to broader communities.

Spencer Murphy, lecturer in film and visual culture at Coventry University, said: “It’s an incredible honour to receive the praise and validation of our peers in the film community at a national level. The East Asian Film Society is providing a space for our media students to foster entrepreneurship and embrace the international agenda of the University’s Department of Media, and for the BFFS to acknowledge the ethos of the society in this way is a tremendous reward for our students’ hard work, dedication and boundless creativity.”

Deborah Parker, managing director of the British Federation of Film Societies, said: “Coventry University East Asian Film Society’s activities were new to the judges, and their partnerships with distributors and dedication to their programming ethos impressed. The judges felt the organisers of this student film society would go on to be part of the wider film industry, either in professional or voluntary careers.”

The East Asian Film Society was voted ‘Best Society of the Year’ by the University’s students in 2011, and it also won the 2011 Cecil Angel Cup – a University accolade awarded to groups or individuals who enhance the reputation of the institution.

To find out more about Coventry University’s East Asian Film Society and its activities, visit its website at www.cueafs.com.

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