Towards the end of last year 'Backfire' picked up the prize for Scotland's top film making prize for under-18s at the Discovery Film Festival.

But now the film, made by students at the LensHeads facility with Bellshill Academy's Learning Centre, has been nominated in the Best Screenplay category of the prestigious First Light Awards, run in association with BAFTA and recognised as the UK's leading initiative for young filmmakers.

The project is supervised by Willie Davidson, who is head of the Learning Centre at Bellshill Academy, and since it started it has created 15 films and provided training to over 300 pupils.

The First Light Awards 2010 will take place at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square, London, in March and will be hosted by BBC's Dick and Dom.

The winning films are to be selected by a group of celebrity judges including David Harewood, Alan Parker, Maxine Peake, Simon Bird, Sam Mendes, David Walliams, Frank Darabont, Robert Sheehan and Tom Hooper.

Full story in January 28 edition of Bellshill Speaker