A film shot in and around Bradford, and featuring local people as extras, has won a top award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in the US.

Private Life, which was filmed at Bolling Hall, Bradford Industrial Museum, Dalton Mill in Keighley and on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, has won the Planet Out Short Movie Awards 2007, regarded as the world's top gay and lesbian film-making prize.

The film was written and directed by Abbe Robinson and produced by Maria Pavlou, both of Doncaster-based Mad Cat Films.

It was funded through Leeds-based regional film agency Screen Yorkshire's Up Short Lottery programme, which awards £20,000 to up-and-coming film-makers, enabling them to develop their career.

Private Life was shot and produced almost entirely in the Bradford district, where the film is set. Set in 1952, it's about a mill worker called Ruth Ackroyd who leaves her monotonous job on a Friday afternoon and secretly takes a train to Manchester, where she meets a man on a platform. But all is not what it seems.

The film was shot last year, with some scenes filmed on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and at Keighley Station.

Vice-chairman of the railway, Bruce McDougal, said: "They spent a day filming at various locations along the railway and a night filming at the station. Several local people were extras they responded to an advert and it was really interesting watching them all in period costume, working with the principal actors."

Filming also took place in the Georgian wing of Bolling Hall and at the period houses at Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill.

Producer Maria Pavlou said: "Being a Yorkshire-based company, we wanted to utilise the fantastic local facilities, locations and crew that the region has to offer. You really couldn't shoot Private Life anywhere else, the audience would spot it straight away. It just had to be Yorkshire.'' The award was announced at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Abbe and Maria will travel to the US in April to collect their $10,000 prize at the Miami International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the official host of the Planet Out awards.

Abbe said: "Other directors who have won the Planet Out Short Movie Award have gone on to direct feature films, so I hope I'll be able to further my career in that way. The prize money will come in handy for future projects."

e-mail: emma.clayton@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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