
Tuesday 16 September 2025
ALL RED-CARPET ARRIVALS AND WINNERS IMAGERY CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
The Sky Arts Awards took place this evening hosted by Bill Bailey at the Roundhouse, London, celebrating incredible achievements across the entire spectrum of the arts. Building on last year's inaugural event and the legacy of the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, tonight's ceremony showcased the absolute best of British and Irish arts and culture.
Guests from the Arts world in attendance this evening included Bob Geldof, Sir Lenny Henry, Anita Rani, Myleene Klass, and Jim Moir plus many more. Guests were treated to an array of striking live performances from the Royal Ballet and Bob Geldof's iconic rock band The Boomtown Rats, Dirty Blonde and Nyah Grace all lighting up the stage. Back on home turf, ska-pop legends Madness closed the celebrations in style.
Nominees across all categories were shortlisted and assessed by independent juries comprised of industry peers from all artistic disciplines. Tonight's ceremony, broadcast on Sky Arts and Freeview, saw a host of artists take home the coveted awards.
Lola Young received the Popular Music award for her unflinching, unapologetic album This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway.' Standout drama Adolescence, which raised urgent questions about youth violence and sparked debate in Parliament was victorious in the Television category. Elf Lyons' groundbreaking Horses' won for Comedy, whilst Conclave, the political thriller directed by Edward Berger, took home the Film gong.
Nederlands Dans Theatre and Complicit won the accolade for Dance for their interdisciplinary and fearless work Figures in Extinction.' As well as celebrating established artists, the Awards also shone a light on emerging talent with The Times Breakthrough Award, which was presented this year to Owen Cooper, who gave a remarkable, breakthrough performance in Adolescence' and has just become the youngest ever male actor to win an Emmy.
Further wins include LUNG who took home the Theatre award for their bold musical The Children's Inquiry,' Opera North won in the Opera category for Simon Boccanegra' directed by PJ Harris with Antony Hermus conducting. Barbara Walker's Being Here' won for Visual Art and Bold Tendencies for Classical Music, whilst Caleb Femi's life-affirming work The Wickedest' and Sally Rooney's devastating exploration of grief in Intermezzo' were awarded the Poetry and Literature awards, respectively.
Singer, songwriter, author, and political activist Bob Geldof was this year's recipient of The Lifetime Achievement Award. Geldof rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats, and today is widely recognised for his extraordinary influence as a musician and cultural figure.
Rising to fame as the outspoken frontman of The Boomtown Rats, Bob became one of the defining voices of the 1970s punk era before going on to co-create Band Aid and the historic Live Aid concerts, which reshaped the relationship between music and global activism. With a career spanning music, business and philanthropy, he remains one of the most iconic cultural figures of his generation.
Sky Arts Awards also honours the unsung heroes from the Arts world and this year's Arts Hero award was clinched by Diane Carroll, who is the Assistant Manager at ran M r in Glasgow, and since 2004 has been working the ticket desk for the venues lunchtime phenomenon A Play, A Pie and A Pint, checking people in and giving the warmest welcome at over 600 shows. Diane knows many people by name and is loved by regulars who come every week to the shows - and some just to see Diane.
All winners were presented with this year's statuette, designed and made by Lindsey Mendick, last year's Visual Art award winner. On creating the awards, Lindsey took inspiration from a number of sources and wanted to subvert the iconic BAFTA statuette. On the importance of the arts, Lindsey commented: The arts are so important because they mirror back a breadth of our feelings. Artistic expression will be one of the things that will continue long after we're all here and it's so important to be here as a document of our time.
Phil Edgar-Jones OBE, Executive Director of Unscripted Originals at Sky, said: The Sky Arts awards celebrates the very best in our Arts and Culture - and we believe we need the joy our artists, singers, dancers, musicians, writer and poets bring more than ever.
It's about telling our stories and listening to the stories of others that we can create a more empathetic society. We need this more than ever in an increasingly divided world. We believe that by bringing our stories to everyone for free we can make a difference and celebrate the joy our creative industries provide.
The Sky Arts Awards is commissioned by Phil Edgar-Jones, Executive Director of Unscripted Originals at Sky for C cile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of Sky Studios & Chief Content Officer for Sky.
Notes to editors:
For further information, please contact
PREMIER PR: skyartsawards@premiercomms.com
Lucy Butterfield: Lucy.Butterfield@sky.com
FULL LIST OF WINNERS:
THEATRE: LUNG
DANCE: Nederlands Dans Theatre and Complicit
TELEVISION: Adolescence
OPERA: Opera North
CLASSICAL MUSIC: Bold Tendencies
COMEDY: Elf Lyons
FILM: Conclave
VISUAL ART: Barbara Walker
POETRY: Caleb Femi
LITERATURE: Sally Rooney
POPULAR MUSIC: Lola Young
ARTS HERO: Diane Carroll
THE TIMES BREAKTHROUGH: Owen Cooper
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Bob Geldof
Latest news
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Matrox Video will showcase its vision for the future of live production at NAB 2026 in Las Vegas, April 19-22, highlighting how broadcasters and media organizat...
11/03/2026
Geneva-based technology company, GlobalM SA, is presenting its GMX Distributed Video Gateway, a software-defined IP media transport platform designed to replace...
11/03/2026
Backlight (booth #N2829), the company behind Iconik and Wildmoka, which power video workflows for large media and entertainment organizations, has released the ...
11/03/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, presents its latest StudioEdge models at The NAB Show ...
11/03/2026
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced the expansion of Telestream Cloud Services with the introduction of UP, a new cloud-...
11/03/2026
Operative, the preferred advertising management provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced the launch of AOS for digital media, an AI-po...
11/03/2026
Calrec will be located in Central Hall, on Booth C6907
Choice without compromise
The broadcast industry is going through a rapid evolution that s signalling a...
11/03/2026
The new service is hosted and operated entirely in the Netherlands, combining data sovereignty, resilience, scalability, and predictable costs without relying...
11/03/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company and leader in interactive graphical overlays, today announced the successful deployment of its platform on Red Bull TV for Premier ...
11/03/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, is advancing its Semantic Intelligence cap...
11/03/2026
Emergent, a leading provider of AI-enhanced media production solutions, today announced the official launch of Fusion, a powerful, no-code application builder d...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Utah Scientific today announced the expansion of its Technology Partner Program with the addition of Audinate, Bitfocus, and Skaarhoj, three industry leaders wh...
11/03/2026
DigitalGlue, creator of the creative.space on-premise managed storage platform, today revealed plans to launch creative.space Intelligence (CSI) at NAB 2026 (Bo...
11/03/2026
Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, gaming, and more, has annou...
11/03/2026
Composer and Re-recording Mixer Michael Phillips Keeley has built his career around immersive storytelling. Working from his Dolby Atmos-equipped studio, Sound ...
11/03/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced that YES, the pay-TV subsidiary of the telco Bezeq (TASE: BEZQ), has selected Synamedia Iris to delive...
11/03/2026
As media companies face increasing cost pressures and operational complexity, at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader in OTT / TV...
11/03/2026
Digital Alert Systems, a global leader in emergency communications solutions for media providers, today announced the release of Version 6 software for its DASD...
11/03/2026
First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...
11/03/2026
Foundry releases Nuke 17.0
Brie Clayton March 1, 2026
0 Comments
Native Gaussian Splat support, new 3D system based on USD, expanded machine learning ca...
11/03/2026
Preserving UNESCO World Heritage with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton March 1, 2026
0 Comments
The Explorers turned to France's cultural landmark...
11/03/2026
I Clicked This By Accident And It Made After Effects SO Much Faster
Graham Quince March 1, 2026
0 Comments
Discover how Region of Interest in Adobe A...
11/03/2026
Cine Gear Connect Brings a Focused All-Day Experience to Industry City, NY
Brie Clayton March 4, 2026
0 Comments
Registration is now open for Cine Gea...
11/03/2026
La Vor gine Edited and Finished with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 4, 2026
0 Comments
One of Colombia's most ambitious projects goes g...
11/03/2026
SoundMarket Launches 18,000 Tracks of Real Music by Award-Winning Composers for...
11/03/2026
Capta Center Supports NOVO19 Remote Production with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton March 5, 2026
0 Comments
The facility provides production and playo...
11/03/2026
DigitalGlue Ends the Post-Production Tax: creative.space Intelligence (CSI) Unif...
11/03/2026
Kochi Sun Sun Uses Blackmagic Replay for High School Volleyball Finals
Brie Clayton March 9, 2026
0 Comments
Versatile Blackmagic Replay system proves...
11/03/2026
Richard Bona Joins Berklee for Signature Series Concert The Grammy-winning Cameroonian bassist and vocalist collaborates with students and faculty in a progra...
11/03/2026
Launched today, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is a 120 billion parameter open model with 12 billion active parameters designed to run complex agentic AI systems at sc...
11/03/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded nearly $5 million by NIH to investigate cancer growth Researchers will investigate how a common dietary nutrient may control...
11/03/2026
TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES
The 2026 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries
Recognising and rewarding the best new Irish fiction writing for...
11/03/2026
RT 's The Traitors Ireland is among the nominees for the 2026 Celtic Media Festival Torc Awards for Excellence, announced today....
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...