A FILMMAKER from south Durham is enjoying silver screen success on the international film festival circuit.

Mark Chapman, who was born in Bishop Auckland and whose family live in Spennymoor, wrote and directed a short film called Faker.

The six-minute comedy drama has been selected to feature in ten international film festivals across the world and has been short listed for two awards.

Faker is about a fleeting encounter between two mismatched strangers during a bus journey on Christmas Eve.

It has been nominated in the best of festival category at the Cork Fastnet Short Film Festival in Ireland and the best fictional short category at the Irpen International Film Festival.

Mr Chapman, 28, said: "For it to be so well received is incredible and testament to all those people who worked on it."

Mr Chapman made his first film when he was 15-years-old for a school project at King James I Community College, in Bishop Auckland.

He went on to study film making at Cleveland College of Art and Design and along with working on films he teaches at Tyne Metropolitan College and is a freelance photographer.