Autistic teenager dreams of big screen career

An autistic teenager from the south of Scotland is hoping to pursue a career in filmmaking after picking up a prize for his work.

Edward Ryan, 14, from Sanquhar, won the audience award at the recent Into Film event in London.

He received his honour from actor Andy Serkis and presenter Edith Bowman.

He told BBC Scotland News he hoped to turn his passion for movie-making into a job in later life.

Edward was born in Inverness and grew up in Forres but has lived in Sanquhar for almost a decade.

The organisers of the awards described them as "celebration of talent" but also a "clear statement of intent".

They said they wanted to show that the UK film industry "values, nurtures and believes in the voices of the next generation".

Among those voices is Edward's.

"I'd always loved making and building with Lego when I was younger and I wanted to make these Lego people and characters and things come to life," he said.

"So I then started to make stop-motion animations with these Lego characters and buildings and things like that, make little movies with them.

"Then I would then progress my skills with that and then get different equipment and better equipment."

The Sanquhar Academy pupil was given a laptop by the local council for his school work which he started to use for making films and it has "progressed and progressed" from there.

His award-winning film - More Than One Way To Go Home - tells the story of a young autistic girl who has to find her own way home when her brother leaves her to fend for herself.

He said winning the prize for his work was a special moment.

"It felt great, it was just overwhelming with all the support that I got from loads of people voting me for this award.

"It was just great. I am still in shock that I won.

"All the support from my community of Sanquhar, it's just been absolutely brilliant and I'm so grateful for all of it."

It has fuelled his passion to pursue a life in cinema after he finishes his education.

"I really want to go into the industry and hopefully become a director of photography," he said.

"That's my dream goal. So I'm hopefully just going to stick in and then go to college and university and just work my way up until I'm a director of photography and do what I want to do."

His mother Jess said the whole family was "incredibly proud" of what Edward has achieved.

"He was a nominee in the best story category as well and even though he didn't win that prize it was still just an incredible achievement to be chosen," she said.

"That was a new category this year that the judges chose out of all the films that were entered.

"So it was an honour to know that he was chosen to be part of the best story category up against other filmmakers that were 18 or 19 years old."

"We're just really, really proud of him and very thankful for the support the community gave him."

She said the fact that he was autistic made it all the more remarkable.

"He's obviously had to overcome a lot of different challenges in his day to day life," she said.

"Filmmaking has been a way for him to express himself in ways that he has otherwise found difficult.

"It's been a really good outlet for him."

She said she believed he could go further in the field where he has already started to thrive.

"We just feel proud and we just hope that he can continue on and achieve his goals and his dreams of one day being a director of photography," she said.

"I don't see why he can't, to be honest, he's got his sights set on the big screen.

"He's got a lot of hard work ahead of him, but he seems really enthusiastic for it."