EIT-trained filmmaker Mathew Watkins is basking in the limelight after a huge win at the internationally- acclaimed Atlanta Horror Film Festival held in the US this week.

Mathew’s eight-minute movie was one of only seven selected to screen in the horror/foreign film section, open to film-makers world-wide and staged as part of October’s Independent Film Month in Atlanta.

Mathew wrote and directed Divide as the major project for his Diploma in Screen Production, which he completed at our project-based ideaschool last year.

Much of the movie’s violence is unseen or implied as it follows a terrified young woman who stays on the phone with her father as her boyfriend holds her hostage.  Our Screen Production’s programme coordinator Claire McCormick says the sense of threat is unforgettable.

Mathew works as an independent film maker in Wellington.  His mother, Julie Bartholomew, can’t speak highly enough of EIT’s support for her 21-year-old son.  Mathew has always loved movies, she says, and “just blossomed” studying at EIT.

If you are interested in the Diploma in Screen Production click here.

Congratulations Mathew – we bask in your reflected glory!