Young people are being encouraged to spend their summer holidays making short films for a county-wide competition.

The budding filmmakers can use a video camera or mobile phone to grab footage to enter the Kent Film Awards, sponsored by the KM Group.

A panel of filmmaker judges will pick winners based on script, camera and sound skills, editing, make-up and the ability of the actors.

Director of the awards, Ken Rowles, of Peregrine Drive, Sittingbourne, said: “Winning films in previous years have been horror movies, action thrillers, personal stories, animations and dramas, but you can make a documentary, a fantasy, whatever you like.

“One of the winners of our first awards in 2008 has just been accepted onto a media course at the London Film School and two winners from the following year now run their own production company.”

Last year the competition was based only in Swale but this year it has been extended county-wide and a famous personality is being lined up to present the awards.

Queenborough director Peter Silk won the senior youth category last year with his documentary Spark And Heart about the Olympic effect in the borough’s sports clubs.

Sittingbourne trio Jerome Patrick, Ben Norris, and Ryan Edwards also walked away with a prize for People Busters 2, a short film about ghosts taking over London 2012.

Individuals, organisations or groups of friends can take part in two age categories: 10 to 15-year-olds and 16 to 21-year-olds.

Entrants with disabilities or learning difficulties up to the age of 25 can also get involved.

Prizes include a trip to Pinewood Studios, the home of many James Bond pictures, or Shepperton Studios, where several of the Harry Potter movies were shot.

Winners will also receive a trophy and certificate.

The films can be based on any genre or theme but must be between five and 10 minutes long.

Entries have to be submitted by Monday, August 26, and finalists will be invited to an awards ceremony at Creek Creative Studios, Faversham, on Sunday, September 8.

The awards will mark the end of the Swale Film Festival which will be run from September 5 to September 8.

To enter, visit www.kentfilmawards.org.uk