A number of Bournemouth University graduates are celebrating after being recognised for their visual effects work on the film Interstellar.
Interstellar won the Special Visual Effects BAFTA at the 2015 Awards ceremony, with BU graduate Andy Lockley and one of BU's honorary doctorates, Paul Franklin, invited on stage to pick up the award.
Lockley and Franklin are just two of a number of graduates of BU's National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) who work at Double Negative, the visual effects house that worked on Interstellar.
There is more reason to celebrate too, as BU graduates worked on the visual effects for all five of the films nominated in the Special Visual Effects category.
Andy Lockley and Paul Franklin also picked up an Oscar for their work on the film Inception. Andy Lockley said, "I attended NCCA in 1999-2000 where I did the MA in Digital Special Effects. I really enjoyed my time there, I came in as a mature student and hadn't been to university before, so I embraced student life to its fullest. I have very fond memories of my classmates and working through the night in the rather smelly lab, it doesn't sound great but there was great camaraderie amongst everyone and we'd go out and get pizza at one or two in the morning to bring back to the room and carry on working.
"I'm very excited that we are nominated again. Everyone seems to think that we should have expected to be nominated, but it's never a sure thing."
Sofronis Efstathiou, who lectures within the NCCA, said, "Witnessing our graduates move into a very competitive industry and then work on some of the best creative projects from around the world is a fantastic feeling. We take great pride in the work of our students and graduates within the Computer Games and a Film sectors.
"I believe we have one student nominated directly for Interstellar (Andrew Lockley at Double Negative), but indirectly we will have had over 100 graduates working across all the nominated feature films. I’m sure all of the staff and current students at BU are proud of our graduates. Their work and success raises the bar for course delivery and student projects every year.
"Congratulations from everyone here on the south coast."
Prime Minister David Cameron was another to offer his praise to BU students. Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions on 11 February he said, "Bournemouth University plays a very important part because its training of some of our digital effects specialists"
BU Honorary Doctorate Paul Franklin also spoke about the success of the British film industry to the BBC in the wake of the BAFTA win.
For more information, read BU's Q&A with BU graduate Andy Lockley.
Our Course pages have more information about visual effects courses at Bournemouth University.
