Sam Pilling and Anton Tammi win big at last night’s UK Music Video Awards 2020

In an event honouring the music video across all genres, the winners of the UK Music Video Awards 2020 were announced last night (5 November 2020). Celebrating individual achievements in the industry as well as the craft and technical prowess behind the camera of the music video, for the first time, yesterday’s event took place in the form of a virtual live ceremony which saw over 500 industry professionals tuning in from homes and offices from around the world.

Winning big on the night was the British-produced video Rocket Fuel by DJ Shadow featuring De La Soul. Directed by the acclaimed Sam Pilling who’s previously directed music videos for the likes of Chaka Khan, Major Lazer, The Weekend and David Lynch, last night, Rocket Fuel won the award for Video Of The Year as well as three more awards. The video sees a humorous recreation of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and marks Pilling’s fourth win at the UKMVAs.

Elsewhere at the event, Finnish-born director Anton Tammi also won big. Bagging the highly prized Best Director award for a series of interconnected videos for The Weeknd’s latest album After Hours, Tammi has previously directed videos for Rimowa and Lykke Li. Also recognised at this year’s UKMVAs were the likes of Dua Lipa, Disclosure, Idles, FKA Twigs, JME and The Streets. Dua Lipa won Best Pop Video for the third time for her recent hit Break My Heart, the latest collaboration with director Henry Scholfield – well known for Stormzy’s Vossi Bop – who also won the Best Director Award last year for another Stormzy track, Sounds of the Skeng.

The event coincided with the UK’s second night of lockdown and provided some celebratory relief for hundreds working in the music video industry. To mark the occasion, the UKMVAs handed out a one-off prize; Best Lockdown Video Prize. It went to the directing team behind DJ and producer Bronson’s Keep Moving, a chaotically surreal music video created solely from manipulated stock video footage only.

Also new to the scene, Greentea Peng won Best Newcomer R&B/Soul Video for her single Mr Sun (miss da sun) directed by Felix Brady whole electronic artists Disclosure won Best UK Dance/Electronic Video for the video My High featuring Aminé and slowthai. Willie J Healey’s True Stereo directed by Joe Wheatley won Best Newcomer Rock Video and lastly, Riz Ahmed won the MVA for Best Special Video Project for the powerful short directed by Aniel Karia, The Long Goodbye. A second win in this category for the director who claimed the title last year for Kano’s Trouble.