DIRECTOR Dan Hartley will introduce tomorrow evening’s gala screening of Lad: A Yorkshire Story at Curzon Ripon to accompany Le Grand Départ for the Tour de France. He will hold a question-and-answer session after the 6.20pm show too.

This multi award-winning film, shot on a micro-budget in the Yorkshire Dales, depicts a young boy, Tom Proctor (newcomer Bretten Lord), being taken under the wing of Yorkshire Dales park ranger Al Thorpe (Alan Gibson) after the death of his father in a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story directed by ex-Harry Potter crew member Hartley.

Lad: A Yorkshire Story has scooped 16 film awards in the United States, Germany, Canada and Britain, becoming the latest Yorkshire film to impress international audiences in the wake of The Full Monty and Calendar Girls.

“I felt it was essential to give the film an authentic and contemporary voice,” says Hartley. “So I used people from the community who had never acted before and used role-play and workshops to devise the script. The result, I think, is a film that is both honest and inspirational.”

• Box office: 0330 500 1331.