At the 16th annual UK Music Video Awards, held last night at Magazine London, Mette’s Mama’s Eyes, directed by Camille Summers-Valli, took three awards including Video Of The Year, Aube Perrie won Best Director and two Best Video awards, Hugh Mulhern won two awards, including Best New Director – and Pulse Films won Best Production Company.

Above: Pulse Films' EP Nnena Nwakodo, centre with award, surrounded by colleagues after accepting Best Production Company from Sam Clark from award sponsor Kodak (second right)

Other big winners on the night were Rik Green, Pulse’s global head of music videos, who won the Best Producer accolade; Sony Music commissioner Kat Cattaneo (pictured top with Ana Matronic), who won the Best Commissioner prize for the second time in three years; cinematographer Nikita Kuzmenko, who won Best Director of Photography; and Alexa Haywood, winning Best Agent for the second year in succession.

Above: Candice Lo (right) accepts Best Producer award on behalf of Rik Green, from Barnaby Laws of award sponsor WPA

Above: Nikita Kuzmenko accepts Best Director of Photography award, with presenter Ana Matronic

On a night of triumph and emotion – superbly hosted by DJ, presenter and Scissor Sisters frontwoman Ana Matronic – the UK Music Video Awards once again confirmed its position as the biggest night of the year for music videos, with a glittering, glitzy occasion at Magazine London, on the banks of the river Thames, overlooking the Canary Wharf skyline.

Above: Magazine London fills with guests ahead of the 16th annual UK Music Video Awards

Among a parade of popular winners during the course of the evening in which awards for 37 categories were handed out, first time MVA winners included Tom Emmerson winning Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video UK for AntsLive’s Number One Candidate; Crowns & Owls winning Best R&B/Soul Video International for Lil Yachty’s Say Something; and directing duo rubberband. Winning Best Alternative Video UK for Bakar’s Alive.

Above: Tom Emmerson (right) accepts Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video UK for AntsLive's Number One Candidate, with co-producer Billy King

Above: Directing duo rubberband. accept the Best Alternative Video UK award for Bakar's Alive!

The absence of Aube Perrie at the ceremony, due to him shooting a new video in Romania, meant that Pulse EP Nnena Nwakodo came to the stage to accept his awards for The Hives’ Bogus Operandi winning Best Rock Video International, and Harry Styles’ Music In A Sushi Restaurant winning Best Pop Video UK.

Other Best Video UK winners were Kasper Haggstrom, for Squid’s The Blades, winning Best Rock Video UK; and Amber Grace Johnson for Jorja Smith’s Try Me – collected by Object & Animal’s Morgan Clement and commissioner Erin Corrian-Alexis. Nnena Nwakodo returned to the stage with producer Archie Johnston Steward to collect the Best Dance/Electronic Video UK award on behalf of Oscar Hudson, director of James Blake’s Big Hammer.

Above: Morgan Clement of Object & Animal (left) and Erin Corrian-Alexis of FAMM accept Best R&B/Soul Video UK for Jorja Smith's Try Me

Above: Pulse's Nnena Nwakodo (left) and Archie Johnston Steward accept Best Dance/Electronic Video UK for James Blake's Big Hammer 

Some of the biggest cheers were devoted to the Technical Achievement categories where Vid Price of Trim Editing won the Best Editing in a Video for his work on Mette’s Mama’s Eyes – his first win of the award after being nominated six times – and Gregory Ohrel’s Dakar-shot video for Fatoumata Diawa’s Nsera winning in both Best Styling (the award going to Dabby Naval) and Best Production Design (Anais Profit).

Above: Dabby Naval shows off her Best Styling in a Video award for Fatoumata Diawa’s Nsera 

Above: Vid Price with his Best Editing in a Video award for his work on Mette's Mama's Eyes

There was an explosion of joy and surprise from the winner when in a very tough field, new artist Truman won Best Performance in a Video for James Alexandrou’s video for Charley Boy. In another tough field, colourist Felipe Szulc at Nomad Editing won Best Colour Grading in a Video for Katie Melua's Love And Money. And Germain Robin of Ocurens led the VFX team from Square onstage to collect the Best VFX in a Video prize for Audrey Nuna’s Locket – completed after the tragic death of its director Valentin Petit.

Above: Truman (right) celebrates wins Best Performance in a Video with Charley Boy director James Alexandrou

Above: Felipe Szulc (left) with his Best Colour Grading in a Video award, with Tomas Katter of award sponsor Studio RM

The evening also included a video tribute to Valentin Petit, and to Claudia Wass, the indomitable editor of hundreds of music videos and concerts, who passed away earlier this year. The UKMVAs also bestowed its prestigious Icon Award for the first time since 2019, to a directing team who have been making extraordinary music videos for nearly 30 years: Dom & Nic. Supergrass member Danny Goffey presented the award to the pair – Dominic Hawley and Nic Goffey (Danny’s brother) and their longserving producer John Madsen – following a film highlighting their incredible work for Chemical Brothers, David Bowie, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Supergrass and others.

Above: Dominic Hawley from Dom&Nic, centre - with Nick Goffey (Dom&Nic), Ana and John Madsen (far left) - accepting the Icon Award

Above: Abigail Wilson accepts Best Rock Video Newcomer award for Stone's Left Right Forward

The evening began with the Best Video Newcomer awards, with honours handed out to Enea Colombi (for Ariete’s Mare di Guai), Jay Green (for San Soucis’s I Know Your Present), Abigail Wilson (for Stone’s Left Right Forward), The Reids (for Mura Masa’s Whenever I Want) and Hugh Mulhern (for Hak Baker’s Telephones 4 Eyes). Mulhern later returned to the stage to collect the prestigious Best New Director award.

Above: Hugh Mulhern (left) accepts Best New Director award, with Jon Davey from LEAP and Ana Matronic looking on. 

Above: Camille Summers-Valli sent a video message for winning Best Pop Video International for Mette's Mama's Eyes, which won three awards including Video of the Year

The last section of awards commenced with Ukranian cinematographer Nikita Kuzmenko accepting the Best Director of Photography award for his work in music videos over the past year, and thanking the music video community for their support of his country in the ongoing war with Russia. Rik Green's prize for Best Producer was presented by sponsor Barnaby Laws of WPA to his wife Candice Lo, in his absence. Pulse Films then won Best Production Company, which saw the whole team present on stage to accept the award.  

Camille Summers-Valli, working on a shoot overseas, sent a video message, shown when Mette’s Mama’s Eyes won the Best Pop Video International award. Kat Cattaneo, commissioner of the video, and this year’s Best Commissioner, then accepted the final award and biggest award of the evening from Ana Matronic: Video Of The Year.

• UK Music Video Awards 2023 – all the winners here