IT isn’t every day that schoolboys get to attend an exclusive screening with an Oscar-winning producer and a multi award-winning writer and director.

But that’s what pupils and students from Bolton School experienced yesterday on the opening day of Bolton Film Festival (BFF).

Youngsters from Year 8 to 13 attended a screening of Sam Johnson’s Earthy Encounters, a “mini-Spielberg” action-adventure film.

Then, Oscar-winning producer Julie Foy presented a screening of her film, The Silent Child.

After each screening, Sam and Julie were happy to take part in a question and answer session,

Sam, who worked on Star Wars and Skyfall, explained his experiences of working in the industry – from being a runner, to becoming a writer and director.He spoke about the opportunities a career in film provided, and how his job has enabled him to travel the world.

When asked by one of the pupils about the cost of film-making, he explained that his first film cost £200, but his latest cost £56,000.

Sam also inspired the students by talking about how many hundreds of different jobs are available within the movie industry.

Julie Foy, whose film, The Silent Child, gives a moving insight into the challenges facing deaf children, told the youngsters about the hard work that goes into financing a film.

“To help raise money, I held cupcake sales and went around the country hosting pub quizzes,” she told the surprised students.

The Silent Child also prompted a discussion about why schools should include sign language in the curriculum which, as Julie pointed out, would have been more useful than the Latin she learned at school.

One student who found the afternoon particularly useful was 15-year-old Thomas Fothergill.

“As a film geek, I found it very interesting. I was particularly interested in The Silent Child.

“Deafness is a subject that a lot of people shy away from, so I think they were very brave to tackle it,” said Thomas, who hopes to become a film director or producer himself one day.

Hosting the afternoon was BFF founder, Adrian Barber, who told the students: “One of the aims of the festival is to inspire young people like yourselves. Working in films s not an unrealistic ambition.”