By Lesley Walsh
FOUR teenagers from Holywood are among a group of young Northern Ireland filmmakers whose talents on the silver screen have earned them a shortlisting in a prestigious film award.
Eighteen year-olds Abigail MacLynn, Charlie Beimers, Emily Hodgen and Benjamin Routledge, who all attend Sullivan Upper School, are part of a 10-strong team whose film Tragicake has been nominated for the Best Story in the 16-19 category, in the star-studded Into Film Awards in London next month.
The film is the product of their collective efforts as members of the BFI Film Academy and was inspired by Abigail’s efforts to bake the perfect cake, a cinematic saga then developed by the team.
Tragicake was then chosen out of all the films submitted to this year’s Into Film Awards to compete in the Best Story category, against two other films from England and Scotland.
It goes up for the possible top gong at the iconic Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, in a glitzy event on June 24, hosted by BAFTA-winning actress and presenter Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Into Film is a charity which supports and inspires budding young talent in the film industry, providing training and resources and which also runs the annual Into Film Festival.
The production has been described as ‘a funny, smartly-made film with a lovely story about perseverance and putting past mistakes behind us’ according to the judges.
During its production, the young filmmakers learned how to storyboard, direct and even wrote an original song to bring their vision to life.
Abigail, who hopes to go on to study screen production at Ulster University, will be walking the red carpet with several of the Tragicake team next month.
“While making this film was scrumptious, this nomination is by far the icing on the cake,” said Abigail. “As a team we all mixed together in a melting pot of talent to sprinkle every aspect of our film with as much flavour, and we hope our film does not trifle the awards ceremony but instead can rise to the occasion,” she said.
Fellow Sullivan A-level student Benjamin added: “Working on Tragicake was a life changing experience for me. It was the project which really kickstarted my passion for filmmaking, and my understanding of the process and teamwork involved to create a film.
“This nomination is a gratification to everything we achieved during the process of production and all the hurdles we jumped through to get to where we are.”
The Awards, sponsored by the UK film industry and supported by the BFI awarding National Lottery Good Cause funding, received an unprecedented number of film entries from children and young people across the UK this year.
