STUDENT filmmakers have walked away with an "Oscar" at a glittering ceremony celebrating film and media production in education.

Bolton Storyworld Codename: Winter Hill scooped the top accolade of the night taking the Premier Award, which is presented to an outstanding production.

The awards reception was held at the BFI — British Film Institute — Southbank in London.

Codename: Winter Hill is a thriller in which students are going missing and the audience members are "dropped in" a action characters.

Made for an audience of students, the film takes place entirely on watchers' smartphones so they can interact with the story.

It was produced by the University of Bolton in collaboration with Bellyfeel — which works with production companies to reach bigger audiences using different media platforms.

Krishna Stott, Bolton Storyworld series producer and founder of the Bellyfeel Transmedia Production Company and and Bolton Storyworld editor Lee Robinson, who graduated from Media Writing and Production at the University accepted the award.

Mr Stott said: "I was shocked — when we didn’t win in our category, I thought that was that.

"To get the accolade of best overall project, the Premier Award, is fantastic. It's good for us and for the students who worked on it."

He added: "Bolton Storyworld is unique because it's way ahead of any other interactive story that I've seen.

"The story is delivered via your smartphone and you interact with phone calls, text messages and online media.

"It's slightly bonkers in fact, but miles ahead of what anyone else is doing in the North West and probably in the UK.

"At Bellyfeel and in general I like to work with students and younger people who are coming up into the industry. I always have done. Our work is innovative and requires new ways of thinking and problem solving so younger minds are more creative in that respect.

Mr Stott said: "The most brilliant thing about winning this award is that there's over 100 University of Bolton students who can put this win on their CV's when they're going out into the media industry applying for jobs."

Lee added: "It was an interesting experience from a student perspective, working closely with professionals while being supported by University staff. It allowed the media students in their final years to manage small teams as part of their final production assignments and it’s fantastic that each and every one of those students can now add this award to their CV."

Bolton Storyworld is available at www.boltonstoryworld.com