A FILM producer has been nominated for his short film at a festival this year.

Langho based film producer Marcus Johnson, is set to release his short film Joel online on January, 24.

Joel, which is the first release from his production company Glacé Media, has been nominated for the Best Short award at Worcester Film Festival.

It will be available to stream on Amazon Prime, Facebook Watch and YouTube, where it will make its online debut.

The story is of internal exploration, unforeseen loss and how these two elements struggle to find harmony in the form of family relationships. These themes are developed through the main character’s journey in understanding his own gender identity.

Mr Johnsons said: “The initial idea was a collaboration between myself, Matt (my business partner) and our friend and fellow filmmaker James Froment who is based in Norway.

“We've worked on video projects before, with Matt and James studying at university together, but always wanted to produce a short film. James came up with the initial idea and from there we shared thoughts and ideas which lead to the final script.”

This release marks Glacé Media’s step into the world of fictional filmmaking, with Marcus Johnson as producer and Matt Green as director. The film was written by James Froment and stars actors Ben Hanley, Max Sandiford and Sophia Talbot.

The online release looks to expand the reach of the film following its award nomination and bring the ideas it explores to a wider audience.

“Joel” was shot on location in Bolton in January of 2020.

The film features rising talents and experienced industry veterans as well as boasting its own original score.

The Worcester Film Festival at which “Joel” is nominated will take place in April 2021 for its inaugural year. This will be the first theatre screening of the film.

Alongside this, the production company, which started in 2017, have also worked on other projects such as a TV advert that was on Sky and ITV for a college called the North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, a video at Mo Farah's last track race for the sponsors Müller Yoghurts, a short documentary about a photographer.

Mr Johnson said: “The initial lockdown really impacted us as we were unable to film on location for months, meaning projects that we had lined up were all cancelled.

“We've had to be creative and work on different forms of videos in the meantime. Luckily, we shot everything for the film in January of last year.”