Ania Magliano, Fern Brady, Blindboyboatclub and Julia Masli

Ania Magliano, Fern Brady, Blindboyboatclub and Julia Masli have all been nominated for the Sky Arts Awards.

Magliano, pictured, is shortlisted as the comedy entrant for the breakthrough award, which features one rising star from each artistic discipline covered by the accolades. 

Dreaming Whilst Black creator and star Adjani Salmon has also been nominated for the award, sponsored by The Times, to represent television.

For the Sky Arts comedy award, Brady is nominated for her body of work, including her bestselling memoir, Strong Female Character; Blindboyboatclub –  half of the Irish comedy hip-hop group The Rubberbandits –  is nominated for his popular podcast  and Masli for her acclaimed live agony aunt show, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Phil Edgar-Jones, director of Sky Arts, said: ‘This year we’re rallying around the question of why the arts matter, helped by the inimitable Lord Melvyn Bragg, all the artists who appear in our shows, and the expert juries assembled for each awards category.’

The full list of nominees for the accolades – previously known as the South Bank Sky Arts Awards – are:

Classical Music 

• Anoushka Shankar for Chapter II: How Dark it is Before Dawn 
• James MacMillan for The Cumnock Tryst 2023  
• Richard Blackford for Songs of Nadia Anjuman 

Comedy 

• Blindboyboatclub for The Blindboy podcast  
• Fern Brady (body of work) 
• Julia Masli for ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 

Dance 

• Boy Blue (body of work) 
• Clod Ensemble for The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady   
• Michael Keegan-Dolan for How To Be A Dancer in Seventy- two Thousand Easy Lessons  

Film 

• All Of Us Strangers 
• How To Have Sex 
• Occupied City 

Literature 

• Salman Rushdie for Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder    
• Paul Murray for The Bee Sting  
• Claire Kilroy for Soldier Sailor  

Opera 

• Welsh National Opera and NoFit State Circus for Death in Venice  
• Royal Opera House for Wozzeck
• English National Opera (body of work)

Poetry 

• Momtaza Mehri for Bad Diaspora Poems  
• Karen McCarthy Woolf and Nathalie Teitler for editing the Mapping the Future anthology 
• Jackie Kay for May Day

Popular Music 

• Cleo Sol (body of work) 
• Dave & Central Cee for Sprinter  
• The Last Dinner Party for Prelude to Ecstasy

Television 

• Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland 
• The Sixth Commandment
• Mr Bates vs The Post Office 

Theatre 

• @sohoplace (body of work) 
• Ryan Calais Cameron (body of work) 
• The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff (body of work)

Visual Arts 

• Lindsey Mendick for Sh*tfaced     
• Soheila Sokhanvari for Rebel Rebel   
• Steve McQueen for Grenfell 
•  

The Times Breakthrough Award

• Ben Goldscheider: Classical Music 
• Ania Magliano: Comedy 
• Jemima Brown: Dance 
• Savanah Leaf: Film 
• Kaliane Bradley: Literature 
• Aigul Akhmetshina: Opera 
• Ella Frears: Poetry 
• Kneecap: Popular Music 
• Adjani Salmon: Television 
• Ben Weatherill: Theatre 
• Claudette Johnson: Visual Arts

Published: 25 Jul 2024