Sky Arts Awards 2025 nominations announced

Sky Arts has announced nominations for its annual Sky Arts Awards 2025.

Hosted by Bill Bailey, the awards ceremony will take place on 16 September 2025 at the Roundhouse in London, and will be broadcast on the evening of the 16th on Sky Arts and Freeview.

The awards champion the best of British and Irish arts and culture, spotlighting creative brilliance across the industry. They remain the only awards that recognise the full breadth of cultural genres with categories including classical music, comedy, dance, film, literature, poetry, opera, popular music, television, theatre and visual arts.

The Sky Arts Awards are the new name for the longstanding South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

In the Theatre category this year, Royal Court Theatre Artistic Director David Byrne is nominated for his body of work re-energising new writing in British theatre. Also, Jamie Hale, founder of CRIPtic Arts is nominated for their body of work championing exceptional disabled artists; and Barnsley-based LUNG are nominated for their bold verbatim musical, The Children’s Inquiry.

Phil Edgar-Jones OBE, Executive Director, Unscripted Originals, Sky said in a statement: “The Sky Arts Awards remain the only night of the year in which all the arts are recognised at once. Poets and sopranos join actors, writers, dancers and musicians to celebrate the contributions they have made to the sector which not only fuels our economy but brings us joy, empathy and hope. Our independent juries have now assembled across every discipline to shortlist the best of the best and all that remains is for us to reveal the winners in what promises to be an unmissable night at The Roundhouse.”

Winners of last year’s Sky Arts Awards 2024 included playwright Ryan Calais Cameron (Retrograde, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy) winning the Theatre Award. The lifetime achievement award was won by Melvyn Bragg, with the award renamed the Melvyn Bragg Lifetime Achievement Award. Bragg announced in 2023 that he was leaving the long-running South Bank Show TV series after 46 years.

The Sky Arts Awards were commissioned by Phil Edgar-Jones, Executive Director, Unscripted Originals at Sky for Cécile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of Sky Studios & Chief Content Officer for Sky. The Commissioning Editor for Sky is Leanne Cosby, and the Project Manager is Vanessa Woodard.

The Sky Arts Awards will be produced by DRUM Studios, part of Omnicom Media Group. The Executive Producers are Andy Holland and Danny Carvalho. The Head of Production is Sarah Fink. The Showrunner is Mark Thorne, and the Director is Julia Knowles.