By Amellia Fowler

UW–Madison’s Steven Hilyard, a professor of digital arts in the School of Education’s Art Department, was honored with three awards at the 2026 Jane Austen Film Festival in Bath, England, including Best of Festival for his experimental film, “Катюша (Katyusha).” 

“Катюша (Katyusha),” is a three-channel video piece based on material collected at Pyramida, a showcase community established in 1928 by the Soviet Union in the Svalbard international territory in the high Arctic. At its peak, Pyramida was home to more than 1,000 Ukrainian coal miners and their families. However, it was evacuated in two days in 1998, leaving it a ghost town.

“The song ‘Katyusha’ is a love song, and yet it is only known in Russia as a nationalistic military song forever associated with the Great Patriotic War,” notes Hilyard in a description of the film. “The soundtrack of ‘Катюша (Katyusha)’ returns the song to its origins as a love song, a young girl singing to her lover, a soldier on the far frontier, her grey eagle of the steppe.”

Competing alongside 32 other festival selections, Hilyard’s film also received awards for Best Art Film and Art-House: Best Director. The awards were presented by prominent figures from the British cinema industry.

The panel of judges included producer and actor David Parfitt (“Shakespeare in Love,” “The Father”), film and television producer Iain Smith (“The Fifth Element,” “Children of Men,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”), and Andy Symanowski of Aardman Animations (“Chicken Run,” “Shaun the Sheep Movie”). 

An interdisciplinary artist, Hilyard creates work using a wide range of media that explores the problematic power of ideals, often involving the creation and manipulation of images and videos. A common theme in his work is the paradoxical nature of people’s impulse towards the profound. Many of his projects have involved traveling to remote locations, from the high Arctic territory of Svalbard to the waters of an Icelandic lake. 

Watch and read more about “Катюша (Katyusha)”