IT may only be a year old, but this year’s Bolton Film Festival has been a huge success.

Last night the cinematic celebrations reached a peak at the festival’s packed closing event.

After 110 film screenings, industry talks, masterclasses, networking events and discussion panels crammed into just three days, Bolton Film Festival concluded with its awards ceremony.

Anticipation was rife as movie-makers and festival-goers waited to find out who this year’s winners would be.

The Light Cinema was buzzing with excitement during the pre-ceremony reception.

It was a busy final day and during the build-up to the awards, there were talks about diversity in film, a panel discussion about women in cinema and television, a film-editing masterclass, a question and answer session with Alice Ramsey of the British Film Institute, and the opportunity to meet and talk with award-winning animators Daisy Jacobs and Mario Radev.

The visionary behind the last three days is festival founder, Adrian Barber. Not only has he devoted the last year to organising the festival and dealing with all the bureaucracy and admin, he has produced and directed a superb cultural event, worthy of an award in its own right.

“I’m super chuffed,” he declared. “It could not have gone any better.

“All the feedback has been fantastic - we’ve had great ratings and comments on the the response sheets that we handed out after each event in the festival.”

As an alternative to the fancy canapes and champagne that is often served up at film festival parties, he had the inspired idea of offering Carrs pasties and pints.

“I wanted to stay true to who we are and what we are about,” he explained.

And judging by the eagerness at which the pasties were consumed, it was a popular decision.

Besides the opportunity to enjoy some amazing films, BFF was a chance for newcomers to the film industry to socialise with and learn from industry experts who are at the top of their game.

“Students and film-makers saw each other’s work and networked,” said Adrian.

Summing up this year’s festival he said: “Everyone’s had a great time. It’s been good for Bolton, it’s been good for film-makers and it’s brought something to the people of the town that the wouldn’t ordinarily have seen.”

Recall, by director Daniel Reich and producer Peter Fulop, was a triple success at last night’s awards ceremony.

As well as receiving the coveted Grand Jury Prize, it also won the Best International Film Award and the Best Cinematography Award.

The film tells the story of Beni, who finds an old photo camera whilst on holiday at Lake Batilon with his mother and sister. He soon becomes obsessed with taking photographs.

Bolton’s Gulnaz Brennan was a local success story with her film, Souls Migrated, A Story of Loss and Hope, being given the Best Community Film Award.

Gulnaz directed the film that shares the stories of people who have settled in Bolton in an attempt to foster better understanding of circumstances, break barriers and open conversations.

It was produced by WiN (Women in Neighbourhoods), a not-for-profit group dedicated to supporting women in the most deprived areas of Bolton.

Mrs Brennan said: “The people we interviewed spoke about what they have left behind and what their hopes are for the future. They shared their memories of home and their culture. There were heartbreaking stories of loss but also of a peaceful and happy future.”

The other winning films were:- Best UK Short: Wren Boys On the day after Christmas, a Catholic priest from Cork drives his nephew to prison. That is the premise for this winner by director Harry Lighton and producer Sorcha Bacon.

Best Documentary: High Chaparral American director David Friel won for this documentary about a bizarre American West-style refugee camp in the middle of a Swedish forest.

Best North West: Landsharks Blackburn director Aaron Dunleavy used community members from social housing to make this gritty, hyper-real drama.

Best Comedy: Ouija Sex Director Mondo Ghulam and writer Leander Thom were successful with this film about a heart-broken man who tries to contact his deceased girlfriend but then discovers she wants more than just a chat.

Best Animation: The Full Story Director Daisy Jacobs scooped the prize for this inventive work about the reflections of a man who is visiting his childhood home for the last time.

Best VR/Immersive: Invention Lithuanian-born, but London-loving director Vaiga Perkauskaite scored a hit with this imaginative offering.

Best Sci-Fi: The Replacement American director Sean Miller’s film tells the story of a janitor who feels cheated out of a life he might have lived when his own clone becomes the President.

Best Three Minute Quickie:1st Day and Next Minute Danish director Sara Koppel’s experimental film was a rush adventure into a gender-fluid zone of desires.

Best LGBT: Ablution Another American win, this time for director Omar Al Dakheel whose film shows how the bond between a disabled Muslim father and son is tested ehen love is pitted against religion.

Best Women in Film: Spinosauraus This deeply personal film by Tessa Hoffe was one of BFF’s opening night films and has already won four international awards.

Best Experimental: Interstitial Taiwanese director Shunsaku Hayashi’s fascinating film about the individuality in the serial solidarity of the individual.

Best M.A Student: Lula Based on the true events in 1944 that recount the survival of Regina ‘Lula’ Jakubowska in war-torn Poland, who had to face down German SS officers in an attempt to save her husband, director Aoife O’Kelly’s stirring tale was another well-deserved win.

Best B.A Student: The Messenger Directed by Hansel Rodrigues, a student at Queen Mary University, London, this film tells the story of Frank, who is desperate for a get-rich-quick scheme after his dole money has been frozen and his benefits are under threat.

Best Sixth Form/College: The Narrator Nicholas Connor, a student at Rishworth Sixth Form College, made this unsettling film about a girl who discovers she is a character in a film after fighting back against The Narrator who controls her life.

Best Performance: Andrea Kelly A moving performance earned this win for Andrea Kelly in Scope, a film about an agoraphobic mother whose son moves in to care for her.

Best Score: (O) Berlin-based music and sound designer, Antonio Quiroga Waldthaler, won for this animation which uses sound frequency and vibration to depict a world.

Film For Change: Lady M Director Tammy Riley Smith and producer Karen Newman celebrated a win for their film which told how an ageing actress summons the spirit of Lady Macbeth in order to win the part in an upcoming production.