A University of Cumbria student has scooped a major industry award for his film about the pine marten.
Peter Howarth, of Kendal, is a postgraduate student at the university and his six-and-a-half minute film Pine Marten won the Saving the Planet student category of the RTS North East and the Borders 2024 awards.
It was a solo project with him completing all of the camera, lighting, sound, editing and post-production work on his own.
Peter filmed and interviewed conservationists from the university-led Back On Our Map, a lottery-funded partnership project that sought to reintroduce 10 plant and animal species, including the pine marten, to Morecambe Bay.
With access to sites of special scientific interest and protected areas, Peter worked on the BOOM project as a photographer and videographer while finishing his BA (Hons) wildlife media degree.
Pine Marten was his final major project for his degree. Graduating last November, Peter is today a student on the university’s MA creative practice programme run by the university’s Institute of Education, Arts and Society.
Peter said: “What a rush hearing my name called out for the award! I am really proud of everything I have achieved in the last three years, a first-class degree, an RTS award, and hopefully soon a BBC credit.
“I couldn’t have done any of it without the help of my course lecturers, especially Laura Baxter who always supported me and let me just do my thing, even if it was always a bit unconventional.
“Fingers crossed this is the first step on my journey, I am now sat eagerly awaiting an Attenborough phone call – as surely it is only a matter of time.”
More than 400 people gathered at a ceremony in Gateshead on Saturday for the annual awards that honour the best in programme making and broadcasting from across the region, including emerging talent.
Peter was one of four University of Cumbria students shortlisted in this year’s awards.
Wildlife media graduates Abbey Wilkinson and Georgia Costin were shortlisted in the same category for their Tails of Cumbrian Heritage film about protecting the county’s Fell Ponies for future generations. Film and TV graduate Matthew Athroll was shortlisted in the student Entertainment and Comedy Drama category for his three-minute film Poachers.
