Chapel teen wins top award

Sam Coulduck was part of a team who created the film Fall, which scooped the Independent Directions Young Filmmakers’ Award at the Leeds Young Film Festival.

Speaking of the moment the winner was announced, Sam said: “It was quite a shock because I thought I knew which film was going to win. There were so many great entries, including a fantastic one about an astronaut.

“When they announced it I actually just said ‘what?’. The entire audience went quiet and looked at me. I even had to give a little acceptance speech.

“It was absolutely amazing. I’ve still not got over it, it’s just a wonderful feeling.

“It’s hard to comprehend winning it. I really had no idea, for me it would have been great just being nominated.”

He added: “We took a different approach to it. No-one had any set roles, no-one was the director or anything, we all just did a bit of everything.

“We had to arrange everything ourselves, hiring actors, sourcing locations. We were given a budget but were given free rein.”

The 17-year-old former Chapel High School pupil got into film-making after winning a place on a course run by the British Film Academy last year.

And he loved it so much that he is now considering it as a future career.

You can see Fall, a moving tale of a man struggling to come to terms with the loss of his partner, on YouTube by searching for Fall and Cornerhouse.