YOUNG North-East film makers beat an international field to take the top prize in a festival held in Finland.

The eleven children who made the winning film were all under seven and one of the youngest groups in the competition at the Videotivoli Festival in Tampere.

They shot their entry, a ten-minute video called Strange Dreams in Crook, County Durham, last October with community arts group Jack Drum Arts, from Wear Valley.

Four of the children, Kelsey Taylor, Ben Thompson, Oliver Thompson and Sam Ward-Hardy, travelled to the festival with parents Joanne Thompson and Stacey Taylor and professional artists Helen Ward and Jane Crawford.

They watched films made by other youth groups from around the world.

Ms Ward said: "It was fantastic on so many levels. We secured funding for four of the children to come along with us - we were the only group who had youngsters with us. It meant they got a lot of attention. They even got to meet and shake hands with the MP of Tampere."

During their four-day stay, the group, who are all members of the jckass media Group, also attended an Army workshop, and spent time in a Finnish school.

They kept a video diary documenting their stay as well as putting regular entries onto a weblog.

The whole group is due to visit Teesside University next week for a ceremony of the Royal Television Society, where each of the youngsters will be presented with a certificate recognising their achievement.

Ms Ward added: "It is nice that all of the children involved will be rewarded next week, they all deserve it."

Strange Dreams was filmed in St Catherine's Church, Crook, in a style based on the Monty Python sketches. The group used a range of different editing techniques. Funding came from the County Durham Children's Fund.