HOLLYWOOD, Cannes...Blackburn.

A group of young film-makers have put their town on the map after their 40-minute production was hailed a resounding success at an international festival.

And one of the members of Blackburn-based Generation Next Company says he is now exploring the possibility of starting a film festival in Blackburn.

Generation Next, which comprises a group of friends, mostly aged 18, entered their first movie Come With Me in the student section of the Karlovy Vary festival - the second largest European film event.

Although they did not win, their film was given a special mention and hailed as an "original, surprising and inventive drama."

They were the youngest group to take part and were up against 71 films from students at post graduate schools in 18 countries.

Not only was their film the longest in the festival, but they worked so hard to publicise their show with flyers, T-shirts and posters that their showing was also the best attended.

Now the group say the experience has helped them to form many influential contacts in the film world.

Michael Booth, 19, who heads the company and wrote and directed the film, his co-director Martin Fairhurst and independent film and video producer Jon Williams, who helps the team, attended the festival.

"We were the first film to be packed out with people," said Michael. "They were sitting in the aisles and on the steps. We were up there with the big boys and everyone wanted to talk to us."

Jon, who lectures at Blackburn College, was also selected to be one of the three members on the jury who judged the event.

"They were one of the stars of the festival," said Jon. "Everybody really liked their film and they made a fantastically good impression."

He added: "I am about to explore the possibility of holding an international film festival in Blackburn. We have excellent media departments at the colleges in the region, which have a very high standard of film-making."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.