By Sian Rodgers

A new blockbuster shot across Kent has been shown at a prestigious film festival.

Bird, which was shot in Gravesend, Northfleet, Bean and Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey, last summer has made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, in France.

Starring BAFTA-award-winning actor Barry Keoghan, the film follows a single dad named Bug who lives in a squat in North Kent and his daughter, Bailey, who looks to find adventure elsewhere.

Last year, film crews were seen popping up at different places across the county shooting scenes for Oscar-winning and Dartford-born director Andrea Arnold.

King Street and Windmill Street, in Gravesend, were shut while Barry Keoghan filmed in the town centre in June and parts of The Hive, in Northfleet, also featured.

Residents of Page Close, in Bean, then had a front-row seat as they watched people running through alleyways repeatedly and a police car racing up and down their road while filming took place.

They were later seen in the seaside town Leysdown and shot scenes across the Isle of Sheppey.

It is thought Andrea, who has an OBE and won an Oscar for her short film Wasp, released in 2005, wanted to include her home town in her next big screen project.