A FILMMAKING Stourbridge teenager has picked up an accolade as he prepares to release his latest movie.

Max Tobin has recently dropped the trailer for his upcoming existential heist movie ‘Enrichment’.

Filmed around the streets of Stourbridge, the dark comedy-drama follows the story of three teens who try to steal money from a drug dealer, featuring scenes of crime, violence and drug abuse.

The King Edward VI College student, who picked up the prize for 'Best Under-18 Film' award at the Thurrock International Film Festival, has spoken to the News about what viewers can expect from his latest project.

Max said: “We are really hoping people enjoy it, but it is very ‘weird’.

“We don’t have the money to make a big blockbuster film, so thought that if we have to write a weird story to make our film special then at least we can say we have.

“The story involved three teenagers who are trying to steal money from a drug dealer and it’s a bit of a comedy action film, but there is also another side to the film which is a dramatic character study of one of the kids who is dealing with a crisis about finding his place in the universe and the point of his existence.

“We’ve just got three scenes left to film and we already have something in the region of 35 scenes filmed, so we are very close to the end now.”

Max originally planned to release the film in November after raising money through an online Kickstater fund, but re-writes held the project up.

He said: “If we get these final few scenes filmed as soon as we can we hope to get it out by late May early June.

“I did feel really bad when we had to delay the film, but the backers have been wonderful. They were all very positive when I showed them the trailer.

“Many of the donations were from people in the Stourbridge community, so we are really grateful to have the support from local people.”

The young filmmaker got his first big break when, aged 15, he found out his work had been selected for The Reel Youth Film Festival. Since then he has entered a number of his films into festivals – and has now picked up a gong.

Max said he was “thrilled” to win the award, especially as he didn’t even expect to be selected for the festival in the first place.

He added: “There are only a few under-18 film awards in the UK and we put forward ‘Visco Fuse’ – a thriller about a teenager who is also a serial killer – which was one of the last films we made.

“We put our films forward for festivals and very rarely do they get accepted, mainly due to the subject material of them as they are usually quite dark and violent, which is not the kind of films that most teenagers are doing.

“So we were thrilled that it was accepted into the running in the first place but to win was something we never expected.

“The panel of judges were top professionals from the industry, including the director of Babadook which is one of my favourite films, so to be recognised by them is quite humbling.”

For more information about Enrichment, or Max’s previous films, visit www.tobinfilmstudio.org