Profiles

It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

Annie Townsend, a 19-year-old student from Tyneside, will soon be rubbing shoulders with A-list film stars including the likes of Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller, after being nominated for a prestigious award.

Annie, from Elswick, is up for the Best Performance in a British Film award at the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival for her performance in the film Helen.

Tyneside Cinema co-commissioned the film

Psychological drama

A previously unknown actress, Annie got her starring role after the leader of her drama group took her to an audition in 2007.

"I go to a West End women's group, a drama-based group local to where I live, and the leader there told us there was an audition going on," she told BBC Radio Newcastle.

"We went down and after a few weeks I got a phone call saying I had actually got the part."

Annie had no previous experience of acting for the silver screen.

"I'd just been going to the drama group," she said. "It's a local thing, it's small. We do issue-based drama there and apart from that [I'd done] nothing at all really."

Helen is a psychological drama which charts the coming of age of a 17-year-old girl.

The Tyneside Cinema has been redeveloped

Parts of the film were shot in Newcastle and Gateshead and Tyneside Cinema and culture10 at the NewcastleGateshead Initiative were among the companies that commissioned it.

"The filming went by so quickly. It was so much fun that you didn't realise how much hard work it was too," Annie said of the experience.

"Everyone in the team was brilliant and they made me feel so comfortable and gave me so much confidence."

A-list competition

Annie's competitors for the Best Performance in a British Film award include the Oscar-nominated Knightley and actor Matthew Rhys, who both appear in the festival's opening film The Edge of Love.

Finding herself amongst such starry company, Annie could be forgiven for having her head in the clouds.

But she doesn't appear to be letting the nomination go to her head - in fact, quite the opposite.

Annie is studying at Newcastle College

Annie is extremely modest about the achievement and seems determined not to let it distract her from finishing her course in coaching and sports development at Newcastle College.

"It's just the fact that I'm up against them that's really amazing for me," she said unpretentiously.

Annie has no immediate plans to do any more film acting but she has continued to perform with her local drama group since finishing Helen.

And, she says, she wouldn't mind following in Keira's high-heeled footsteps one day.

The 62nd Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from 18-29 June 2008.

Helen will have its world premiere at the festival and the film is also in the running for The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film.