THE End could be the beginning of a Hollywood career for filmmaker Paul Blinkhorn.

The former Bolton Sixth Form College student has been longlisted for the prestigious Enter the Pitch Film Competition and is in with a chance of securing £30,000 of production funding and support.

Paul, 35, said: “As someone who has been self-funding my projects up until this point – working various low-paid and zero-hour contract jobs along the way, this is a fairly big deal.”

His short film, titled The End, is a dark comic drama about an influential businessman who is forced to go on the run to evade sinister forces that are hunting him down.

Paul, who has been interested in film since he was a child, said: “I was lucky enough to have a dad who loved film too and encouraged me to watch everything and not just the big releases.

“I’d watch everything I could get my hands on.”

The End was filmed in one day in Horwich. It was filmed and developed with Julia Frost, one of his friends who is a puppeteer and performer in television and film.

Paul, was an assistant director at The Octagon and the youth theatre leader of Bolton Little Theatre.

If he wins the competition he will go to Hollywood where top professionals will watch his film and give hints and tips on improving his filmmaking skills and taking them to the next level.

Paul said: “The prizes are unbelievable. It is about so much more than the prize fund itself though, the competition nurtures filmmakers long-term, they don’t just fund films.”