{"id":28075,"date":"2026-06-05T10:05:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/?p=28075"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:31:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:31:29","slug":"bu-graduates-win-top-film-prize-at-uk-young-lions-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2026\/06\/05\/bu-graduates-win-top-film-prize-at-uk-young-lions-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"BU graduates win top film prize at UK Young Lions Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ciara<\/a>

Sunny and Ciara<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Two Bournemouth University graduates will represent the UK at one of most prestigious competitions in advertising, after being named category winners at the UK Young Lions Competition 2026<\/a>.Ciara Ferreira and Sunny Winter were announced as the winning duo in the Film category, earning them the opportunity to represent the UK at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June.<\/p>\n

Run by the Advertising Association, the competition is widely regarded as a showcase for the country\u2019s brightest young creatives. In 2026, the competition attracted more than 150 entries across six categories, with participants challenged to respond to a demanding real-world brief.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s brief was set by The News Alliance and asked entrants to develop a compelling campaign promoting the value of trusted news media.<\/p>\n

Ciara and Sunny\u2019s winning entry<\/a> focused on the role of the media in sharing significant moments across history, and the importance of advertising investment to keep it alive.<\/p>\n

Ciara, who graduated with a degree in television production<\/a> in 2022 and now works as a Creative at Sky Creative, said: \u201cWinning this award is incredibly exciting – not just as recognition, but for what comes next. It gives us the chance to gain international experience, challenge ourselves at Cannes and connect with a whole new network of creatives from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her time at Bournemouth University, Ciara said: \u201cI chose Bournemouth University because of its reputation in media and television production, and it has absolutely lived up to that. The course gave me hands-on experience, access to industry-standard facilities, and the confidence to develop my own creative voice. It really set me up with skills and experiences I use every day in my career for which I am really thankful.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunny studied media production at BU<\/a>, graduating in 2021 and now works at Boxlight Creative Studio<\/a>. He said: \u201cWinning the Young Lions competition was a surreal <\/em>moment, especially given the level of talent involved. Bournemouth University was a huge part of that journey. The course itself is incredibly practical and hands-on, but the real strength of BU is the people. I now have friends and connections in almost every corner of the media industry who I still call on all the time – that kind of network and access is honestly bonkers, and something you can\u2019t really put a price on<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciara and Sunny will now repeat the challenge to create a film, based on a new brief, when they get to the Global Young Lions Competition at Cannes Lions next month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sunny Winter<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\"Ciara<\/a>

Ciara Ferreira<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Two Bournemouth University graduates will represent the UK at one of most prestigious competitions in advertising, after being named category winners at the UK Young Lions Competition 2026.Ciara Ferreira and Sunny Winter were announced as the winning duo in the Film category, earning them the opportunity to represent the UK at the Cannes Lions… Read more » about BU graduates win top film prize at UK Young Lions Competition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4783,"featured_media":28084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[496,4,1660,1644,19,1671,3610,1675,501,283,1663,1638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ug-courses","category-editorial","category-editorial-news","category-employability","category-featured","category-film-and-television","category-graduates","category-media-production","category-media-film-tv-music-production","category-news-2","category-postgraduate","category-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28075"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28096,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075\/revisions\/28096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}