A Windermere man has won international awards for his debut film.
The Fronts of War was filmed in Keswick and Kent by Tom Gardner, 25.
The film has won 13 accolades to date including the Jury Award for Best Director at the Europe Film Festival, Best International Short Film at three festivals in India and Best Short Film in London, Italy and Japan.
The film was additionally selected to be screened, out of competition, at festivals in America, Brazil and Hungary.
The award-winning director, a former student of UCLan, said: “Ever since graduation I have been looking for a project which is close to my heart and this is definitely a passion project. The cast and crew were absolutely incredible throughout and it’s as much of their success as it is mine.
“This was a collaborative effort and I am overjoyed that I could work alongside such talent. I am incredibly grateful for everyone’s support throughout the making of this film and the response from people has been overwhelming.”
UCLan’s Mike Pacey, senior lecturer in interdisciplinary study and performance, School of Arts and Media, added: “I supervised Tom’s final year theatre production entitled The Grindley Brothers which was loosely based on Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter as well as owing a debt to a few gangster movies such as Reservoir Dogs and The Krays. He was clearly greatly inspired by cinema even then.
“He showed a great talent for directing and had a keen visual sensibility which he used to good effect in his performance work which often employed aspects of multimedia.”
The film was co-written with screenwriter Olivia Lewis-Brown and starred Adam Grindley and Aaron Fraiser. Aaron was also nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Short Film Festival in Italy for his portrayal as Private William Mawlbury. All three are UCLan alumni, with Adam studying on the same course as Tom.
The Fronts of War has just been released onto YouTube here while the official trailer is available here.
