A HORROR film co-produced by a North-East man for just £500 has won a prestigious national award.

Dean 'Midas' Maynard, of Crook, County Durham, together with Dan Weatherer, were stunned to discover this week their short film The Legend of the Chained Oak had taken top honours at the Portobello Film Festival.

Mr Maynard, who also acted in the film, said they now hope to get funding to turn it into a full-length feature and share their work with as many people as possible.

He said: “It is crazy if I'm honest. We made the film for £500 and filmed it over four days last September and then put it together in January. The entire crew worked non-stop for a week for free and now the rewards for their efforts have started to bloom.

“It is more than we expected when we filmed it. When I first saw the script I was interested straight-away as I knew it was really good. We just went from there.

“We had a feeling we had put together something reasonably good.”

The Portobello Festival is an independent festival based in London, which was launched in 1996 to provide a forum for new filmmakers and to give exposure to films on different formats.

It annually premieres more than 700 films in different genres, including animation, sport and features.

In the last seven months, The Legend of the Chained Oak has also won best short film at the Stokes Your Fires Festival, is short-listed for film festivals in Argentina and Cambodia and it will be shown at the Bram Stoker Festival next month.

Mr Weatherer wrote the film, which has been described by critics as “a cross between Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity.”

Acting sisters Amy and Faye Ormston, of Newcastle, received glowing praise for their roles in the film.

Mr Maynard added: “Our next step is to get funding to make it into a full length film. Hopefully we can get something at the Tyneside Cinema.

“We have won but it has only been seen by a few people so it would be great to get it made.”