Schools win awards in film festival

FOUR schools picked up awards in the first-ever Warrington Schools’ Film Festival.
The festival, which aims to provide an introduction to the workings of the film and media industry, was organised by the borough council in partnership with the Odeon Cinema and Penketh High School, which has already won widespread acclaim for producing two full-length feature films.
There were two award categories – Best in Key Stage 2 and Best in Key Stage 4.
Films from Park Road Primary School and St Barnabas CE Primary School received the ‘Best in Category’ awards for Key Stage 2 level while at Key Stage 4 level, Green Lane School and Birchwood High School received the ‘Best in Category’ awards for their films.
The film and media industry is an increasingly popular career path for young people.
Local schools were given the opportunity to script, direct, edit and produce a short film over a period of four months.
Technical support was available from Penketh High School’s media studies department for pupils from any school taking part in the competition.
Entries were judged by Janice Pounds, council arts adviser and Jonathon Kay, media manager, Penketh High School.
Participating schools were invited to a screening at the Odeon of all the film festival entries and commendation certificates were presented to the pupils involved by Phil Brotherton, Odeon manager and Jonathon Kay, media manager at Penketh High School.
Janice Pounds said: “We were delighted by the interest shown in the first Warrington Schools’ film festival. The standard of films submitted was extremely high and the council was delighted to be able to work with Penketh High School and the Odeon to provide a quality media experience for our children.”