A former Ipswich School student brought his Oscar statuette to school last week as he spoke to pupils about his award-winning film career.

Aneil Karia, who was a pupil at the school from 1994 to 2001, won an Oscar in 2022 for his film The Long Goodbye in the Short Film (Live Action) category.

He spoke to Year 12 drama students and visited the Prep School to deliver an assembly to the children in Upper Prep. Students and staff also had the chance to hold the Oscar – which was much heavier than everyone expected!

Hear from Bryony on her day with Aneil

On Friday 19 May, Old Ipswichian and Oscar winner Aneil Karia came to our Year 12 drama class to talk to us about directing in the arts and how he got into it. He told us that while at school, he did not know what he wanted to do, and went to university to study journalism. At the age of 24 he had a realisation that what he was truly passionate about was directing; due to his love of watching music videos and commercials as a teenager, he wanted to do something similar. He began to shoot low-budget music videos and commercials and eventually got an agent who found him other jobs.

He then did some short films and began choosing larger, longer jobs in television and films, such as The Gold on BBC, based on Britain’s largest ever gold heist ever and Top Boy on Netflix. In 2020, he directed the short film The Long Goodbye, which was the film that gained him his Oscar. We watched this film which discussed issues which resonate in our modern world.

We were able to ask questions about his job and he even brought in his Oscar, which we were all lucky enough to hold and take pictures with. Overall it was a very eye-opening talk and we were given a lot of insight into what we can achieve, as well as showing us that it is not important whether or not we know where we want to go after sixth form.

Bryony S, Year 12