Shelley film director wins award with debut flick

May 22 2009 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Shelley film director wins award with debut flick

A SHELLEY film director has won an award for his debut flick.

Paul Robinson’s Fanatic won best short film at the Milan Film Festival.

Paul, 39, of Shelley, has been a photographer for the last 15 years.

But he discovered his passion for cinematography back in 2003 when he created a coffee-book photographic project.

Subsequently he enrolled on an MA course at the London Film School, where he graduated in 2007 and where the idea of Fanatic was founded.

It has now won the best short film award at the first film festival it was entered in.

Paul, a father-of-four, said: “When it was in post production a few people told me to send it to some film festivals.

“I sent it to 10 festivals not really expecting but hoping to hear back and it got into two which is amazing.

“So to then win an award for best short film at my first festival was just unbelievable.”

Fanatic is based in Barcelona and tells the story of Daniel played by George Appleby, who has been in some of the Harry Potter films. Daniel is an English dwarf bicycle courier living alone on deserted wasteland in the outskirts of Barcelona.

Paul added: “When I came out of film school there was a certain level of production which everybody was doing and trying to get funding is very difficult.

“Production values are the main thing for me. My passion for cinematography is something I wanted to maintain to a high standard.