A PRODUCTION company set up by five teenagers from Hale has scooped two prestigious awards.

Gorilla Film Making Productions beat off competition from more than 1,000 entries from around the win the BFI Feature Film Festival Fiction prize for their "dark, dramatic action thriller," O2.

They then went on to lift the BFI RAW gong and now they can use £5,000 in prize money to produce another work - complete with industry support.

The win was made even more special because this is the BFI Feature Film Festival was the first festival the company had entered.

Sam Jones, one of the company's co-founders, said the five strong team were left feeling "ecstatic" by its double success.

The 16-year-old said: "It means so much for us to win these awards. To be even selected for screening we were ecstatic as our films have been recognised on a professional level. It is incredible that this passion we have which started out as a hobby is being rewarded, helping us go further in the direction of a career. This is more specific for me. I want to be a director in the future and go into the industry."

Gorilla Film Making Productions is made up of students who attend Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. On this project Sam was the director, writer and editor and he was assisted by Henry Barlow (actor), Alfie Robinson (actor and visual effects), Tim Sutton-Brand (sound) and Alex Patel (composer).

He said 02 is set in "a dystopian future where the retributive systems for both adults and children have been changed."

Sam added: "A teenage criminal is placed on a vast moorland, confused and fearful. He learns that he can only breathe through a gas mask attached to an oxygen canister. As he begins to breathe in, a digital watch begins a countdown – only 10 minutes of oxygen remaining."

A fan of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, Sam said his interest in film-making has been a long standing one - starting on a laptop webcam.

* Anyone interested in finding out more about the work of GFMP should visit gorillafilmmakingproductions.com