The Associated Press’ Lucy Smee has been named Footage Employee of the Year at the Focal International Awards, the world’s most prominent archive footage business honours. The awards, which recognise and celebrate the use of archive footage and those who work in the industry, were announced last night at a glittering ceremony at the Lancaster London Hotel, hosted by television and radio presenter and former BBC chief news reporter Kate Adie OBE.
Smee, who has been working for AP Archive for over three years, was nominated by AP customers for her ability to deal with complexities around licensing, talent clearances, technical issues and finding obscure footage of particular events.
The AP Archive contains over 1.7 million global news and entertainment stories dating to 1895. More stories are added every day and a digitisation project, which took two years to complete, has ensured the preservation of unique footage of some of the most important events in history for the benefit of future generations.
“The AP Archive is something that we are all incredibly proud of and part of its success is down to the passion of the people that work for it,” said Alwyn Lindsey, AP’s director of international archives. “We have invested in it heavily but it is people like Lucy that make such a huge difference with their ongoing contribution and ability to meet the needs of each and every customer. We are delighted that Lucy has been recognised by the industry and that our customers also appreciate her knowledge and passion.”
Contact
Laura Imregi
Communications Manager
The Associated Press
+44.0207.482.7751
limregi@ap.org
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