A FILM which was shot and set in York has fought off competition from Idris Elba’s directorial debut to win Best British Film at the National Film Awards.

Scott and Sid features famous York locations including the historic walls and city centre streets, cafes and restaurants, including Ask in the Assembly Rooms, Biltmore and Grey’s Court Hotel.

Filming also took place at Aviva and Huntington School, where classroom scenes were shot.

Aspiring film practitioners in the University of York’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television were involved in the project as interns.

The semi-autobiographical debut feature film by Scott Elliott and Sid Sadowskyj, who had never written, produced or directed a full-length feature before, premiered last year and won rave reviews from critics.

It follows the story of two friends who set out to chase their dreams, with their ambitions including fast cars and making a movie.

Sid is portrayed as having an impoverished and dysfunctional background, with Scott said to be a low achieving student, quintessential troubled teen and shambolic dreamer, intent on carving out his own path in life.

It was made for £1 million and was up against productions with budgets of over £6 million, including Idris’s first film Yardie, in the national contest.

Sid said he had met and chatted before the ceremony to Idris, who had subsequently spoken out about their film in his acceptance speech, and positive reviews for the film had included one from Steven Spielberg.

He revealed that their next film, True Cine Live, would look at the problem of film piracy after thousands of people had viewed pirated copies of Scott and Sid illegally on download sites.

He said it would not be just a film but a ‘live, theatrical drama’ with audiences no longer restricted to the role of passive viewer.