Sky Arts announced the nominees for the inaugural Sky Arts Awards early Thursday morning.
The Sky Arts Awards is described as "the ultimate celebration of the arts and culture sector, rewarding excellence across all art forms. The nominees revealed today comprise the most exciting artists and arts organisations across the UK and Ireland, some of whom are nominated for specific works from the past year, whilst others are recognised for their stellar body of work."
"This year we’re rallying around the question of why the arts matter, helped by the inimitable Lord Melvyn Bragg, all the artists who appear in our shows, and the expert juries assembled for each awards category," said Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts, in a statement. "Following in the footsteps of the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, the Sky Arts Awards will allow us to celebrate and venerate all the arts in one place, and definitively prove the value of the sector. And with the cohort of superstar nominees below, it’s going to be an unmissable night.”
The Sky Arts Awards were commissioned by Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and Entertainment, for Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content for Sky UK and Ireland. The Commissioning Editor for Sky is Leanne Cosby and the Project Manager is Vanessa Woodard. The Awards are produced by Somethin’ Else TV, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. Ian Sharpe serves as Executive Producer.
Here is the full list of nominees:
Classical Music
- Anoushka Shankar for Chapter II: How Dark it is Before Dawn
- James MacMillan for The Cumnock Tryst 2023
- Richard Blackford for Songs of Nadia Anjuman
Comedy
- Blindboyboatclub for The Blindboy podcast
- Fern Brady (body of work)
- Julia Masli for ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Dance
- Boy Blue (body of work)
- Clod Ensemble for The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
- Michael Keegan-Dolan for How To Be A Dancer in Seventy- two Thousand Easy Lessons
Film
- All Of Us Strangers
- How To Have Sex
- Occupied City
Literature
- Salman Rushdie for Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
- Paul Murray for The Bee Sting
- Claire Kilroy for Soldier Sailor
Opera
-
Welsh National Opera and NoFit State Circus for Death in Venice
- Royal Opera House for Wozzeck
- English National Opera (body of work)
Poetry
- Momtaza Mehri for Bad Diaspora Poems
- Karen McCarthy Woolf and Nathalie Teitler for editing the Mapping the Future anthology
- Jackie Kay for May Day
Popular Music
- Cleo Sol (body of work)
- Dave & Central Cee for Sprinter
- The Last Dinner Party for Prelude to Ecstasy
Television
-
Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
- The Sixth Commandment
-
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
Theatre
- @sohoplace (body of work)
- Ryan Calais Cameron (body of work)
- The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff (body of work)
Visual Arts
- Lindsey Mendick for Sh*tfaced
- Soheila Sokhanvari for Rebel Rebel
- Steve McQueen for Grenfell
The Times Breakthrough Award
- Ben Goldscheider: Classical Music
- Ania Magliano: Comedy
- Jemima Brown: Dance
- Savanah Leaf: Film
- Kaliane Bradley: Literature
- Aigul Akhmetshina: Opera
- Ella Frears: Poetry
- Kneecap: Popular Music
- Adjani Salmon: Television
- Ben Weatherill: Theatre
- Claudette Johnson: Visual Arts