Moses brings his Mum on stage to collect the Best Director award; OK Go's Damian Kulash accepts Icon honour with simple message: "long live music videos". Photos by James Gifford-Mead.

The 18th annual UK Music Video Awards, the biggest global celebration of music video creativity, produced another night of joy and emotion at the ceremony held last night (October 30th) at Magazine London.

A$AP Rocky’s Tailor Swif won Video Of The Year and five honours in total, while videos for FKA twigs won four awards, and Gabriel Moses was named Best Director - and accepted the award accompanied by his mother, Grace Sotonrin (pictured above and below).

Above (from top): Best Director winner Gabriel Moses with his mother, Grace Sotonrin; Icon Award winner Damian Kulash; Video Of The Year-winning Directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia with producer Natan Schottenfels (left) 

At the show hosted by Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters fame for the third year running, over 40 awards were announced, including two special honours: The Icon Award, which was accepted by OK Go frontman and director Damian Kulash, for the extraordinary videos the band have made for two decades; and the inaugural Legend Award, which celebrated the achievements of trailblazing director Diane Martel, who passed away in September.

The Best Production Company award, sponsored by KODAK, went to Object & Animal for the second year running, and the company’s Morgan Clement won Best Executive Producer. Luna Carmoon won Best New Director, and also Best Rock/Alternative Video – Newcomer for Fontaines DC’s In The Modern World.

Above (from top): Best New Director winner Luna Carmoon; Best Production Company winners Object & Animal; Best Pop Video UK and Best Alternative Video UK winner Jordan Hemingway.

The Object & Animal-produced video for FKA twigs’ Eusexua, directed by Jordan Hemingway, was a multiple award-winner on the night, with Zoï Tatopoulos winning Best Choreography In A Video, and Charlie Von Rotberg of Stitch Editing winning Best Editing In A Video for their work on the promo, before Hemingway accepted the Best Pop Video UK prize for Eusexua. Hemingway also won Best Alternative Video UK for another twigs video, Striptease.

Among the most joyful moments on the night came when two individuals from the British music video industry won individual honours for the first time: Polydor commissioner Louis Danckwerts won Best Creative Commissioner; and Chris Murdoch won Best Producer. Both were involved in several videos that won awards on the night, and both accepted the Best R&B/Soul/Jazz Video UK award on behalf of Celeste for her self-directed video for This Is Who I Am.

Above (from top): Chris Murdoch accepts the Best Producer award from Estere Sulca of award sponsor WPA; Best Creative Commissioner winner Louis Danckwerts; and collective Boy Dykes, winners of Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video UK for Kae Tempest's Statue In The Square. 

Once again, the international attendees of the awards came from far and wide to be present at the UKMVAs – including Osmar Junior, who flew in from Brazil to accept the Best Colour Grading In A Video award, sponsored by Studio RM, for his work on Rubel's Ouro/Reckoner.

OK Go’s Damian Kulash accepted the Icon Award, having flown in from Los Angeles overnight, with very short acceptance speech, saying: “long live music videos” - following a video tribute that featured messages from friends, family and fans, including sister Trish Sie, wife Kristin Gore, directors Patrick Daughters and DANIELS - and Adam Buxton. Kulash was then on stage later in the evening to accept the Best Rock Video International prize with one of his co-directors of the video Aaron Duffy, who had just arrived from New York.   

Above (from top): Best Colour Grading In A Video winner Osmar Junior with Larissa Zaidan; Best Rock Video International winners Aaron Duffy (left) and Damian Kulash for OK Go's Love; Colin Solal Cardo (right) winner of Best Rock Video UK for Wolf Alice's Bloom Baby Bloom, with Stink's Valentina Tarelli and Dom Mckiernan. 

But none came away with more honours than Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, whose video for A$AP Rocky’s Tailor Swif won a record haul of five awards on the night including Video Of The Year, Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video International and three prestigious Technical Achievement awards.

Made in Kyiv, Ukraine before the start of the Ukranian war with Russia – and shelved for two years - Heymann and Muggia accepted Best Cinematography in a Video on behalf of Denys Lushchyk, and Best Production Design on behalf of Misha Levchenko, plus Best Visual Effects in a Video, by Heymann and Tal Baltuch for the extraordinary ASAP Rocky video. Furthermore the directing duo also accepted the award for Best Pop Video International for Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild.

Oher winners among British artists at this year’s UKMVAs were Wolf Alice’s Bloom Baby Bloom, with director Colin Solal Cardo and his colleagues at Stink picking up the Best Rock Video UK prize; Leon Vynhall’s Cruel Love, directed by Alex Takács, winner of Best Dance/Electronic Video UK; and in another joyful moment, directing collective Boy Dykes picked up Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video UK for Kae Tempest’s Statue In The Square – their first video. Boy Dykes member Lydia Garnett also won Best Special Visual Project for her Hannah Holland film Last Exit On Bethnal, while Chapter Road member Tom Gullum accepted the Best Live Video prize for Fred Again.. & Obongjayar’s Adore U.

Director/DoP Jake Erland won his first UKMVA for his video for Olivia Dean’s Nice To Each Other - picked up by producer Rowan Mackintosh King - winning Best Pop/R&B/Soul/Jazz Video – Newcomer. Other wins in the Newcomer categories came for Yeeid, who won Best Dance / Electronic Video for Tinie Tempah’s Eat It Up; Nicolas De Sola for Archy Moor's Robbery Rings, winner of Best Hip Hop / Grime / Rap Video; Mikuláš Hrdlička, winner of Best Cinematography newcomer for Son Lux's Flickers; and Alvyn Diagne won Best Editing Newcomer for his video for Clovis's Les Cigales.

And there were British winners of two awards making their debut at the UKMVAs this year: Selma Nicholls CDA won the inaugural Best Casting In A Video for her work on Bakar’s Lonyo!; and Rory Alexander Stewart won the Best Low Budget Video prize for Squid’s Cro-Magnon Man.

Many of the award recipients reacted on stage with surprise and delight – including Italian director Alice Fassi, who won Best Alternative Video International for directing Cults’ Onions. And Sharon Chung at Wash for her Colour Grading on Rüfüs du Sol’s Break My Love.

One of the most emotional moments came early in the evening, when there was a special presentation of the first Legend Award to honour the late Diane Martel, with a video tribute by her friend Ben Cole, and the award accepted by Juliette Larthe and Lee Fairweather on behalf of Diane’s family.

Then, near the end, Gabriel Moses took to the stage with his mother to accept the Best Director prize, to the acclaim of the assembled members of the music video community at this year’s UKMVAs. A very special moment at the climax of a very memorable evening.

• All the winners of the UKMVAs 2025 here