Film festival winner enjoys international success

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Local Yorkshire filmmaker, David Gilbank, took home the "Audience Choice Award" from the inaugural Harrogate Film Festival. He credits that success to a whirlwind 18 months that saw his winning short film made into a feature film which has gone onto critical acclaim, winning numerous awards worldwide. With a red-carpet screening in both London and Mexico, the film ‘Polterheist’, will also enjoy a DVD release. 

Scenes in the film were shot close to Harrogate and David, who is from Bradford, self-funded the project initially, before receiving investment following his Harrogate success.

Dave Gilbank

David Gilbank at the 2017 Harrogate Film Festival

Polterheist tells the story of two gangsters who are given 72 hours to discover the whereabouts of a stash of drug money stolen by their boss. There's only one problem...they just murdered him. Frantic to find the cash, the hapless criminals kidnap a psychic medium and force her to contact the dead gang boss. Unfortunately for them, they only succeed in unleashing an evil spirit bent on revenge.

The film won the ‘Raworths Solicitors Audience Choice Award’ in the 2017 edition of Harrogate Film Festival. This award is voted for by audiences who attended the independent filmmaker screenings over the Festival weekend.

“Winning the competition and the overall support from Harrogate Film Festival helped to spread awareness of the film locally. This gave us a platform to seek funding and move the film project forward. We’re so pleased by the Festival’s continued support for our indie film and I am very excited to showcase the feature to Festival audiences in 2019.”

David Gilbank, Film Director

“It’s great to see local film thriving on an international scale. The fact that we can provide support and publicity for independent filmmakers is one of the main reasons we launched the competition and festival. To see a local filmmaker, have his film produced for the big screen is amazing and we are so pleased to welcome David back to the Festival in March.”

Adam Chandler, Managing Director at Harrogate Film Festival

David Gilbank returns to Harrogate Film Festival for the screening of his award-winning film Polterheist at 10:30am on Sunday 3rd March 2019 at Everyman Cinema. Following the screening there will be an audience Q&A session with David himself free for all ticket holders.