On Monday 19th October Lincoln University's Engine Shed played host to the 2009 LAFTA (Lincolnshire Awards for Film, Teamwork and Achievement) Awards. Resplendent in their poshest frocks and tuxedos, Emily-Beth Huckle,  James Howsam, Joe Ritjakis and Geoff Reid walked down the red carpet and took their places in the main hall to await the result of their nomination for Best Production.

This was the 3rd running of the LAFTAs and the first time that QEGS had entered any films so we were a little unsure of what to expect. Our expectations were surpassed in every regard. Passing through an honour guard of Storm-troopers, commanded by Lord Vader himself, we entered the venue along the traditional red carpet. Inside the Engine Shed was decked out in the finest faux Oscars style and we took our seats to the sounds of music from the movies played by Jazz Vehicle, a 40 piece orchestra featuring some of the finest student musicians in the county.

The awards themselves cover all stages of school life. There are eight awards in the primary schools section, including the newly added special schools category and a foreign language category. There were 72 entries within this section and as clips were played it was plain to see that many of these films were of an excellent standard. As a table we were particularly impressed by the performances in St Faiths 'Dinosaur News' and the wonderful animation in The Sir Francis Hill entry 'Me Me Monkey Flies to Chocolate Mars'.

After a brief musical interlude we then moved on to the secondary schools section. There were 52 entries within this section with awards for Concept, Structure/Narrative, Production and Animation along with a Best Overall Film. The standard in all sections was very high with some incredibly creative work on display. As the clips for the films nominated in the Production category were played there was a palpable rise in tension around our table. As the Mayor of Lincoln reached in to the golden envelope to pull out the winners name I felt sure that it would go to William Lovell's 'Horses That Rock', which had featured some lovely camerawork. It was a genuine surprise therefore when he announced that the winners were QEGS for 'Shattered'. The rest of the evening passed in a bit of a euphoric blur after this and it wasn't until the end of the main awards that I realised that along with the trophy we had won a Samsung Netbook PC and some animation software.

As we repaired to a local Italian for some well deserved sustenance (we even managed to fill Geoff up) the talk was all of what a fantastic experience the whole evening had been and how disappointing it was that they wouldn't be able to enter next years awards. I have to agree with those sentiments entirely and as a school we absolutely will be entering again. Whether we will be able to repeat this years success remains to be seen.

Andrew Grant (Media HLTA)