Winning Best Dance/Electronic Video UK at the UKMVAs 2025 last month, the Leon Vynehall video by Alex Takács - fka Young Replicant - is a superb demonstration of the director's vision, method and style. Arguably, its rather miraculous considering the artist is not one to command big music video budgets, because it's movie-quality filmmaking.

Takács creates a complete cinematic world for Vynehall's Cruel Love, inviting the viewer to unpack the meaning behind a narrative which establishes a powerful dystopian vision - echoes of Orwell's 1984, with Vynehall retreating to his cell-like apartment, its bleakness combined with elements of technology - before it moves into a more dreamlike state.

Characteristic of the director's work, this is a triumph of filmmaking craft, where cinematography by longtime collaborator Dustin Lane, production design by Slow Pulse, VFX and location play a huge role. It marks Takács return to music videos and return to working with Vynehall - he directed the video for Movements (Chapter III) in 2019.

A worthy winner at this year's UKMVAs from a director whose work has elevated the medium for the past decade or more.