TX: 14 March at 9.30pm on Sky Arts 1 HD

Kristin Scott Thomas, Jo Brand, Victoria Wood, Grayson Perry, Tim Minchin, Jo Whiley, Richard E. Grant, Akram Khan, Mark Strong, Amanda Echalaz and Dame Margaret Drabble are among the names confirmed to present awards at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards which will be held on Tuesday 12 March at The Dorchester Hotel, London.

The winners this year will receive a newly designed trophy created by artist Livvy Fink in collaboration with the Royal College of Art. The awards are one of the world’s most coveted arts awards, with the presenters joining Melvyn Bragg to honour the best of British culture and achievement across the arts. Each category - visual art, theatre, opera, dance, comedy, classical music, pop, TV drama, literature and film – is traditionally presented by a celebrated talent within that field.

The Times Breakthrough Award, which honours the best new artistic talent, will return for 2013. This year it will be presented by last year’s Theatre award recipient Tim Minchin.

The award for Outstanding Achievement, in association with The Dorchester,will be presented by Victoria Wood.

The awards will also see performances by the award-winning tenor Alfie Boe, classical violinist Nicola Benedetti to an audience of 300 guests from across the arts. 

SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS AWARDS: CONFIRMED PRESENTERS

Jo Whiley: Pop Music

Nicola Benedetti: Classical Music

Akram Khan: Dance

Mark Strong: Film

Jo Brand : Comedy

Dame Margaret Drabble: Literature

Grayson Perry: Visual Art

Richard E. Grant: TV Drama

Tim Minchin: The Times Breakthrough Award

Amanda Echalez: Opera

Kristin Scott Thomas: Theatre

Victoria Wood: The Dorchester Award for Outstanding Achievement

The televised awards will broadcast on Thursday 14^th March on Sky Arts 1 HD at 9.30pm and on the move with Sky Go. This year also sees the return on the 18^th April of The South Bank Show arts series, which has been recently been nominated for an RTS Award. This iconic series marks a further development for Sky Arts which champions art series, and which underlines Sky’s promise to deliver high-quality, exclusive content to customers, supported by a commitment to increase investment in home-grown programming to £600 million by 2014

**Details of the subjects of this year’s South Bank Show series will be announced following the awards.

SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS AWARDS 2013: FULL NOMINEE LIST

Classical Music

·         Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Arias for Guadagni

·         London Philharmonic Orchestra, Julian Anderson, Ryan Wigglesworth - The Discovery of Heaven - Royal Festival Hall

·         London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle - Wynton Marsalis’s Swing Symphony – Barbican.

Comedy

·         Alan Partridge: Welcome to The Places of My Life – Sky Atlantic

·         Hunderby – Sky Atlantic

·         Twenty Twelve – BBC 2

Dance

·         A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet

·         Jeux, English National Ballet

·         Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, Royal Ballet & National Gallery

Film

·         Berberian Sound Studio

·         Skyfall

·         The Imposter

Literature

·         Bring Up The Bodies, Hilary Mantel

·         Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, Kerry Hudson

·         Umbrella, Will Self 

Opera

·                     Les Troyens, Royal Opera House

·                     Ghost Patrol, Scottish Opera & Music Theatre Wales

·                     Where the Wild Things Are, Barbican

Pop Music

·             Jessie Ware, Devotion

·             Plan B, Ill Manors

·             Saint Etienne, Words and Music

Theatre

·         The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time, National Theatre

·         The River, The Royal Court Theatre - Jerwood Theatre Upstairs 

·         The Master & Margarita, Complicite – Barbican

TV Drama

·         Line of Duty, BBC 2

·         Parade’s End, BBC2

·         The Hollow Crown, BBC2

Visual Art

·                     Hopkins Architects: London 2012 Velodrome, Olympic Park

·                     Paul Noble: Turner Prize Exhibition, Tate Britain

·                     Thomas Heatherwick: London 2012 Olympic Cauldron, Olympic Park

Outstanding Achievement in association with The Dorchester: To be announced on the day

“It’s wonderful to be able to welcome such an exciting mix of esteemed talent to the South Bank Sky Arts Awards,” commented Melvyn Bragg. “We have world-class performers and presenters lending their support to what will be a hugely exciting ceremony. I applaud all the nominees who have secured their places on these shortlists; their work is the finest in what has been such a thriving and successful year for the arts.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT

Katherine Solomon PR Manager, Sky Press Office

T: 0207 032 0599

E:

Dominic Collett Sky Arts Publicist, Sky Press Office

T: 0207 032 4892

E:

NOTES TO EDITOR

South Bank Show

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards (Previously the South Bank Show Awards) are now in their 17^th year and are still the only awards ceremony in the world that represent the entire spectrum of British arts, from visual arts to opera, television drama to dance, film to literature.

In addition to the 10 main categories, there are also two special awards: The Times Breakthrough Award, voted for by Times readers, which recognises up and coming talent across the arts, and The Dorchester Outstanding Achievement Award which celebrates an individual's extraordinary contribution to the arts.

The awards, which are presented by Melvyn Bragg at The Dorchester, always attract an eclectic mix of people. Previous attendees include Ronnie Wood, J K Rowling, Sir Ian McKellen, Darcey Bussell, Dame Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Sir Tom Stoppard, Rachel Weisz, Russell Brand,, Damien Hirst, and Sir Richard Attenborough.

Judges

The judges of this year’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards are Gilly Greenwood, Chair, Peter Aspden, Arts Correspondent of Financial Times; Baz Bamigboye, Entertainment Columnist & Arts Reviewer of Daily Mail; Richard Brooks, Arts Editor of The Sunday Times; Sarah Donaldson, Arts Editor of The Observer; Manisha Ferdinand, Head of PR Sky Arts & Sky Movies; Boyd Hilton, TV & Reviews Editor of Heat Magazine; Alex O'Connell, Arts & Entertainment Editor of The Times; and Archie Powell, Documentary Filmmaker.

Sky Arts

Sky Arts offers an eclectic mix of the best music, arts, biographies, chat shows, film, drama and comedy. Sky is the only broadcaster in the UK and Ireland with channels dedicated solely to the arts, with 48 hours of the best arts content from around the world across Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 daily. Sky Arts now reaches more than 6 million viewers every month.

Recent highlights include Playhouse Presents… a series of one-off comedies and dramas starring renowned talent including Jon Hamm, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Thompson, Sir Tom Jones, Brenda Blethyn, David Tennant and Alison Steadman. The channel was also responsible for resurrecting the much-loved South Bank Show and The South Bank Show Awards. Sky Arts also encourages new formats and methods for accessing the arts, working with the ENO and National Gallery to beam the world’s first live opera and first live opening night of an exhibition in 3D to cinemas across the UK and Ireland.

Sky Arts also seeks to connect with culture on the ground; creating and collaborating with the best of the arts in the UK and Ireland to bring new experiences to life. Sky Arts has collaborated with a number of arts organisations including the English National Ballet and has supported the Hay Festival as broadcast partner since 2006. The Sky Arts Ignition Series launched in in 2011 to invest in the arts landscape of the UK. The Series will seek to collaborate with six arts organisations over the next three years in the creation of brand new works; Sky Arts Ignition Series: Futures Fund will support five young artists with a bursary of £30,000 each, enabling Sky Arts to back the creation of new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent.

Follow us on twitter @skyarts. See sky.com/arts