Personalities from Stage and Screen attended this week’s prestigious Clapperboard Awards Ceremony, which was held at The Lowry, Salford Quays.

The annual ceremony celebrates the achievements of young filmmakers from all over the North West and the Midlands, the evening attracted a whole host of celebrities endorsing this great project who all arrived at the theatre in BBC Candy Cabs cars. Benidorm actor Crissy Rockhosted the spectacular event and presenters and guests at the star studded ceremony presented the young film-makers with their awards including Peter Salmon, BBC Director North, John McArdle (Waking the Dead)and Will Ash from Waterloo Road).

Young people between the ages of 13-19 came together at the Quays Theatre at the Lowry, Salford Quays, to receive their Clapperboard Awards . The youngsters who came from across the country including Oldham and Salford, made ten short films exploring serious issues around sexuality and gender, substance misuse, hate crime, knife crime and anti-social behaviour. This year’s judging panel included acclaimed writers such as Shameless’ Paul Abbott.

The award winning writer and creator of the BAFTA winning television series praised the project and said…. “There’s a wealth of creative young talent in this region as you will see when watching these films. Clapperboard is a unique project where young people come up with ideas to tackle issues that affect them and their communities. They then take control of the whole project from script to screen with the guidance of industry professionals.

The Awards Ceremony is a celebration of their work and a great opportunity to integrate young people from Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Birmingham. Once again, this year’s films are outstanding and being a judge wasn’t an easy task”.

Organiser Maureen Sinclair said: “It was a fantastic celebration. So many well know people have given up their time to be here this evening to support the young people’s creative achievements. We really struggle with sponsorship to showcase their achievements and endorsements from such well know personalities allows us to promote the project to a much wider audience”.