THE teenage star of a short film has won the best actor award at a prestigious film festival.

Lewis Bradshaw, 15, suffers from Aspergers but has taken to acting ‘like a natural’ and was hailed for his role in Throw Me to the Dogs, a short piece by Blackburn filmmaker Aaron Dunleavy.

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The Darwen Vale student has worked with Aaron before and stars in the film alongside his foster parent Peter Quinn.

Lewis won the award at the Manchester Indie Short Film Festival earlier this month, but was only told about the award and presented with the honour on the last day of term at the Blackburn Road school.

Mr Quinn said: “He was shocked when he found out he had won the award. He couldn’t attend the awards ceremony so we waited until the leavers’ assembly to tell him and got Aaron to present him with the award.”

Throw Me to the Dogs was filmed in Blackburn for a week in February.

Set in the Griffin area where Aaron grew up, it tells the story of 43-year-old wheeler-dealer Quinny, who hires a group of local lads, led by ruthless teen Tez, to compete in a football tournament in the hope of winning prize money.

Lewis played the role of Dylan, Quinny’s son. His 15-year-old brother Kurt also had a role at the beginning of the film but those scenes didn’t make the final cut.

Mr Quinn said: “I got a script from Aaron a while ago and he was after young lads, so I said to Lewis and Kurt you’ve got 10 minutes to read it, decide on your characters and perform it.

“I think he’s got a chance of making a career as an actor, he really embraced it.”