Chris Spyrides (right( with I Am Lonely director Phil Haine

An actor from Woodford Green helped his company to victory at the Cannes Film Festival after he dashed home to lead a final promotion push.

(back row, l to r) Phil Haine (director), Frederic Fournier (composer, editor and sound designer), Jonathaon Brown (writer) (front) Matt Prendergast (actor)

Zombie movie I Am Lonely, starring Chris Spyrides, of Wallers Close, won the Cannes Short Film Corner competition, run in association with the National Film Board of Canada, beating more than 2,000 entries.

The winner was decided based on how many people selected the “like” option on YouTube after watching the eight minute film, minus the number of dislikes, by Thursday of last week.

Neck-and-neck

Mr Spyrides was disappointed to miss the celebratory bash but pleased all the hard work paid off, particularly as the film trailed by more than 100 “likes” 26 hours before the voting deadline.

He said: “The top two were neck-and-neck for a long time but then we fell behind.

“With just over a day to go we were in second place and losing by 130 likes, but we managed to fight back.

“We all promoted harder than ever, sending emails and using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and thankfully people got behind us.

“I was absolutely chuffed when I heard we had won but I was too shattered to celebrate and also didn’t have any beers in the fridge.”

I Am Lonely was made on a budget of just £500 by a crew of 12 people.

His company, Brainhound Films, was presented with about £10,000 of equipment including an Apple Mac with editing software and a digital HD camera

“We were already using a decent camera so I can’t wait to see how good this one is,” Mr Spyrides said.

He said he has started writing a pilot for a comedy TV show about a Frenchman living in London with a friend.

n To watch Mr Spyride’s performance search “I Am Lonely nfb” on YouTube.