Awards to precede the return of The South Bank Show in May

TX: 1st May, Sky Arts 1 HD, 9pm

The sixteenth South Bank Sky Arts Awards will return in 2012 to celebrate the towering achievements in the arts over the past year; in the only awards ceremony in the world where hip-hop sits alongside opera; literature alongside stand-up comedy and TV alongside architecture.

The awards are one of the world’s most coveted arts awards, celebrating the best of British culture and achievement across visual art, theatre, opera, dance, comedy, classical music, pop, TV drama, literature and film. Melvyn Bragg will once again act as editor and master of ceremonies.

The shortlist for 2012 proves no exception in the history of the awards, which pride themselves on honouring a wide range of phenomenal artistic achievement. For the first time, the pop category is a female-only shortlist, pitching the grand dames of contemporary music against one another with PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake and Kate Bush’s 50 Words For Snow going up against Adele’s globally acclaimed 21.

In what was an incredibly strong year across all of the categories, the nominees for the film award demonstrates the wealth and variety of UK creative talent at the moment. Joe Cornish’s aliens vs hoodies debut Attack The Block will go up against Lynne Ramsay’s compelling adaptation of the harrowing novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin¸ and the breakout documentary of the last year, Senna.

The comedy award, notoriously one of the most competitive categories, sees two of the year’s most popular TV comedies go head to head with one of the UK’s most popular stand-up comedians: Channel 4’s student sitcom Fresh Meat and Olympic mockumentary Twenty Twelve will contend with Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle for the coveted prize.

The Times Breakthrough award will return for 2012, shining a light on the up and coming talent to look out for.

The ceremony, to be attended by the best talent from across the arts, will be held at The Dorchester on 1st May 2012. They will air at 9pm, on Sky Arts 1 HD and on the move with Sky Go.

Sky Arts brought the South Bank Sky Arts Awards back for 2011. The South Bank Show will also return to screens from 27th May, following the announcement in 2010 that it would no longer air on terrestrial television, adding to the growing roster of original British content across Sky’s entertainment channel portfolio.

 “Although this is a celebration of British arts by British artists, we have a world class list of nominees,” comments Melvyn Bragg. “ The South Bank Sky Arts Awards are the only one of their kind in the world, and we very much look forward to a great day, where we’ll recognise and honour the best talent in this country.“

“The South Bank Sky Arts Awards represents everything we at Sky Arts stand for,” comments James Hunt, director, Sky Arts. “Where else but at this incredible ceremony might you find Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon and Ronnie Wood side by side with Nigel Kennedy, Alfie Boe, and Bryn Terfel? We like to think that we, at Sky Arts, do exactly what the South Bank Sky Arts Awards does so brilliantly – celebrates the best of the arts, in one place.”

SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS AWARDS 2012: FULL NOMINEE LIST

Classical Music

·         Llyr Williams: Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Cycle at Edinburgh Festival

·         Harrison Birtwistle with Boston Symphony Orchestra: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra at Boston Symphony Hall

·         Sir Colin Davis and the LSO: Nielsen’s Symphony Cycle at the Barbican

Comedy

·       Fresh Meat, Channel 4

·       Twenty Twelve, BBC4

·       Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, BBC2

Dance

·       Zoo Nation, Some Like it Hip Hop, Sadlers Wells

·       Akram Khan, Desh, The Curve

·       Arthur Pita, The Metamorphosis, Linbury Studio

Film

·     Attack The Block

·     Senna

·     We Need To Talk About Kevin

Literature

·        Pure, Andrew Miller

·        Charles Dickens: A Life, Claire Tomalin

·        Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Jeanette Winterson

Opera

    The Damnation of Faust, ENO
    Mignon, Buxton Festival
    Heart of Darkness, Linbury, Royal Opera

Pop Music

·         Adele, 21

·         PJ Harvey, Let England Shake

·          Kate Bush, 50 Words For Snow

Theatre

    Matilda, RSC,

    One Man Two Guvnors, National Theatre

    Constellations, Royal Court

TV Drama

·         Sherlock, BBC 1

·         This is England ’88, Channel 4

·         Top Boy, Channel 4

Visual Art

    Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman,  British Museum

    David Chipperfield: The Hepworth Wakefield

    David Hockney: A Bigger Picture , Royal Academy

THE TIMES BREAKTHROUGH AWARD: NOMINEES

·            Comedy: Adam Riches                                         ·            Opera: Sophie Bevan                                             

·            Classical music: David Bates                             ·            Pop music: Michael Kiwanuka

·            Dance: Yonah Acosta                                           ·            Theatre: Joseph Drake

·            Film: Felicity Jones                                                 ·            TV Drama: Jessica Raine

·            Literature: Stephen Kelma                                 ·            Visual Art: Haroon Mirza 

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

For further information on the nominees, please visit www.sky.com/southbank

Notes to editor

For further information please contact:

Manisha Ferdinand

Head of PR, Sky Arts and Sky Movies

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7032 2842

Email: Manisha.ferdinand@bskyb.com

Katherine Solomon

PR Manager, Sky Arts

Tel: +44 (0) 207032 0599

Email: katherine.solomon@bskyb.com

Notes to Editors

South Bank Show

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards (Previously the South Bank Show Awards) are now in their 16th 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.

Previous winners include Arctic Monkeys, Sir Cameron Macintosh, Peter Grimes, Elbow, Gavin and Stacey and Amy Winehouse.

 

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; Matt Cain, Culture Editor at Channel 4 John Cassy, Director, Sky 3D; 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; Archie Powell, Documentary Filmmaker

 

Sky Arts
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. Recent highlights include the latest season of the Met Opera, Chekhov Comedy Shorts, a season of brand new plays starring the cream of British comedic talent, the world’s first opera in 3D and The South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

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. The flagship show, The Book Show, now goes to four literary festivals including Hay and Cheltenham. Sky Arts Creative Wish is part of Sky Arts Ignition Series which 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. Sky Arts also encourages new formats and methods for accessing opera; beaming the world’s first live opera in 3D to cinemas across the UK and Ireland from ENO. Follow us on twitter @skyarts. See sky.com/arts