TWO nine-year-old boys from Chagford attended the premiere of their original films, thanks to the Exeter Picturehouse which selected them from this year’s Emerging Talent Showcase 2016, part of the Chagford Film Festival.

Monty Pealing’s film The Secret Island Treehouse is an animation using lego which tells the story of a man arriving at a desert island. Toby Skilton’s film The Reflection is about a boy whose reflection comes out of the mirror to play with him.

Nick Goldsmith, producer of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy feature film and member of the panel who viewed the Emerging Talent entries, said: ‘The film by Toby was very original and charming.

‘It just goes to show that with a simple, strong idea you don’t need much else. A clever use of split screens made the whole thing seamless but the best thing was it didn’t try to be too clever with the trick.’

Mary French, founder of Chagford Film Festival, said: ‘Monty chose a really difficult genre to pull off — stop frame animation — but with a combination of sound effects, interesting camera angles and well chosen music it made an enchanting mini-story.’

The Chagford Film Festival launched the showcase this year in order to encourage young people in primary and secondary schools to explore filmmaking.

The film professionals who viewed the Emerging Talent entries were Sara Bennett, visual effects supervisor for The Martian and Oscar winner for Ex Machina, Nick Goldsmith, producer of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, Russell Maclean - producer of the Comparethemarket.com meerkat adverts, and Richard Roberts, set decorator for Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron.