A NUMBER of Bournemouth University graduates celebrated last night after a host of BAFTA successes.

Former students were recognised for their visual effects work on the film Interstellar.

The film won the Special Visual Effects BAFTA at the 2015 Awards ceremony, with BU graduate Andy Lockley and one of BU's honorary doctorates, Paul Franklin, invited on stage to pick up the award.

Mr Lockley and Mr Franklin are just two of a number of graduates who work at Double Negative, the visual effects house that worked on Interstellar.

BU graduates worked on the visual effects for all five of the films nominated in the Special Visual Effects category.

Mr Lockley and Mr Franklin also picked up an Oscar for their work on the film Inception.

Mr Lockley said: "I attended NCCA in 1999-2000 where I did the MA in Digital Special Effects.

"I really enjoyed my time there, I came in as a mature student and hadn't been to university before, so I embraced student life to its fullest. I have very fond memories of my classmates and working through the night in the rather smelly lab, it doesn't sound great but there was great camaraderie amongst everyone and we'd go out and get pizza at one or two in the morning to bring back to the room and carry on working."

Before the results were announced last night, he said: "I'm very excited that we are nominated again. Everyone seems to think that we should have expected to be nominated, but it's never a sure thing."

A former Arts University Bournemouth student also scooped a nomination for his film ‘Slap’.

Director Nick Rowland, an AUB BA Hons film production alumnus was nominated in the category of British short film in 2015.

The film, which screened at the Short Film Festival in London last month, tells the story of a teenage boxer searching for self-definition.

As well as the prestigious nomination for 'Slap', Nick’s new film ‘Out of Sight’ was selected for the Sundance short film festival.

It was one of 60 films to be chosen from thousands of entries.

Bournemouth graduates have also been involved in each of the films nominated for the visual effects BAFTA.

They include Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, Interstellar and X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

Among them is Sam Salek, who also worked on the Oscar winning film Gravity last year.

Sam, 33, graduated in 2010 with an MA in digital effects and now works as a compositor for international firm Framestone, which worked on the comic book action blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy.

The film has also been nominated for an Oscar.

In another Dorset connection, Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything – which features two Christchurch brothers – has been nominated for 10 BAFTAs, winning three accolades, including Outstanding British Film.

Oliver Payne, 10, and Finlay Wright-Stephens, nine, play the renowned astrophysicist’s children Robert and Timothy. They attended Bournemouth-based Swish of the Curtain theatre school.