Mon 26 Mar 2007

Celebrations were in full swing at the Bridgend Odeon last night as winners of the Zoom Young Filmmaker of the Year Award 2007, sponsored by the Film Agency for Wales, collected their prizes in a special Awards Ceremony which brought the festivities of Wales’ International Young People’s Film Festival to a close.

The Young Filmmaker of the Year 2007 aged 8-13 went to Autar Hussain from the First Light Project for the film ‘Johnny Lever and the Crazy Fruits’ and the prestigious title for the 14-18 category was given to Tom Cooke and Abby Charles for their short film ‘Xpress’. The young winners collected their £100 cash prize from Sophie Borja from ‘Tracy Beaker’ and Lucy Borja from ‘Young Dracula’ whilst older filmmakers were awarded by the award winning ‘Belonging’ star, Donna Edwards. Each winner will also go on to discuss further film projects with the Head of Talent at the Film Agency of Wales.

Other 8-13 year old filmmakers who were also celebrating were Hannah Sage whose film ‘Dream Guy’ secured joint second place with the children at Machynlleth Primary School’s short film, ‘Alien Antix’. Successful filmmakers aged 14-18 included Simon Lea from the Filmmaking project Film 15 who was awarded second place for his film ‘Wild West’ and Jim Price and Martin Boaler who were awarded third prize for their film ‘Youth in Focus’.

Porth County Community School were also in high spirits having won the Zoom Audience Award after cinema goers voted their film, ‘It’s gd 2 tlk…’, as the best film to be screened during Wales’ International Young People’s Film Festival 2007. The children were also overjoyed with the reception their work received during the world premiere of ‘It’s gd 2 tlk…’ which took place during the festival’s Opening Night at the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd last Thursday 22^nd March.

ENDS

Editors: For more information please contact Sian Harries on 029 2046 1166 or sian@zoomcymru.com