Shock, horror as new talent struts its stuff for Scottish Bafta awards

Scottish horror dominated the night at the country's awards for budding screen stars, as a former Edinburgh drama student took the best actress award for her role as a schoolgirl in a film about a housing estate terrorised by a murderous beast.

Hanna Stanbridge won the Bafta Scotland New Talent award her role in Outcast, filmed in the capital in 2009, playing a street-smart teenager alongside the Cold Feet star James Nesbitt.

Best producer award went to another Scottish horror, the off-beat short film Zombie Musical, filmed on the streets of Dumfries.

The Bafta New Talent awards are intended to highlight new work by students and first-time film-makers in Scottish film, television and digital media.

"They demonstrate the enormous wealth of potential we have within Scotland, and we're proud to be able to give the winners what they rightly deserve," said Ewan Angus, chairman of Bafta in Scotland.

Lou McLoughlan, who is studying directing through the Edinburgh College of Art and the Screen Academy Scotland, picked up two awards, for best director of a short film and best student work for Caring for Calum.

It is described as the moving story of a man who moves back to Scotland to look after his ailing father in the Highlands.

The Big Slick, called a "no-budget feature film", a comedy about a group of young men whose effort to have a quiet night in spirals out of control, earned the best writing award for co-creators Keith Grantham, Graham Hughes and Graeme McGeagh.

Ms Stanbridge, 25, originally from Penicuik, was set to receive her reward at the Glasgow Film Theatre last night.

The Leith-based actress is a graduate of Edinburgh's Queen Margaret University, and playing 16-year-old Petronella in Outcast marks her film debut.

She auditioned for the film during her lunch break.

The supernatural horror film, starring Kate Dickie and James Cosmo, showed at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year.

It was made by television director Colm McCarthy and the Edinburgh producer Eddie Dick.

Zombie Musical earned the best short film producer award for Naysun Alae-Carew.

The film, which had three nominations, is a horror twist on the High School Musical teen movies and there are plans to reshoot it as a full-length feature film.

"We don't think that to make a great film in Scotland it necessarily has to be dark and moody," Mr Alae-Carew said recently.

"We think we can make something which is really fun, that is very commercial and has an international appeal."

Locations included a Dumfries school and football ground.Out on the Tiles, a stop-motion animation film that follows a drunken woman going to the toilet for a cigarette, won best animation for Edinburgh College of Art student Anna Pearson.

Sarah Drummond took home Best Producer for Mum's Birthday, a low-budget Edinburgh drama.

Judge MacLaverty, director of Bafta in Scotland said: "Each year we are overwhelmed by the level of creativity, originality and thought.

"The awards were very well deserved and we are proud to showcase emerging talent."

THE WINNERS

ANIMATION: Out on the Tiles

ORIGINAL MUSIC: Pete MacDonald, Fixing Luka

EXPERIMENTAL/ART: Lyrical Spread

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT:Julian Schwanitz, Director of Photography, Disco

WRITER: Keith Grantham, Graham Hughes and Graeme McGeagh, The Big Slick

PRODUCER, SHORT: Naysun Alae-Carew, Zombie Musical

PRODUCER: Sarah Drummond, Mum's Birthday

ACTOR/ACTRESS: Hanna Stanbridge, Outcast

DIRECTOR, SHORT: Lou McLoughlan, Caring for Calum