The silver screen is coming to town as the Walthamstow International Film Festival takes off this weekend.

The festival, which takes place on Saturday, July 13 and Sunday, July 14, has been running for four years and is supported by the British Film Institute (BFI).

More than 100 films entered with almost a third of entries from Walthamstow filmmakers.

Liza Fletcher, founder of the Walthamstow Film Festival, says the films were shortlisted by the judges on the basis of “those who’d used genre of categories as creatively as possible to those which would inspire others to take an interest in cinema.”

Local talent shone through with Hassan Vawda, hailing from Walthamstow, taking first prize for his debut film My Photographs.

The judges voted overwhelmingly for this film, which also won Best Documentary.

Hassan, who is an artist, received high praise from one of the judges Georgina Starr whose experimental films have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize, saying it was “heartfelt, moving, and poetic”.

He explains how he began helping his uncle, Ismail, with photography and the film developed from there.

“Because he has Downs Syndrome, verbal communication can be quite challenging at times for him, especially when it comes to expressing what he is feeling.

“Through photography he was able to find a way to literally capture what he can feel and show it to people without anything lost in translation.”

He adds: “It turned out he was teaching me far more about photography and art in general than I was trying to teach him.”

Second prize, went to Rene Nuijens, from Holland, for his film The First Yugoslavian Cosmonaut, which also won Best Drama film.

Joint third prize and Best Experimental film went to Déjà Vu by Jean Guillame Bastien from Canada. He shared the position with Otis Tree, aged 15, a pupil at Kelmscott Secondary School, Markhouse Road. His sci-fi drama Time Warp, which was filmed in the borough, also picked Best Film in the youth category for 15-25 year olds.

He has won a place on the BFI Zombie movie workshop in September, which is based on the Zombie series by Charlie Higson, of Fast Show fame.

Noel Goodwin, head of youth education at the BFI, also praised the runners-up in the youth category.

Yolanda Johnson’s film Bluey in Wonderland and Sayed Ahmed and Stephanie Wong’s interpretation of the Owl City song Take it All Away were both shortlisted.

The students from Leyton Sixth Form College will also attend the Zombie workshop to encourage them to continue making films.

Fourth prize went to Dee Honeybun and Lesley Palmer from Walthamstow, who also picked up the prize for best animation for their film Lega’say’.

The film is about the 2012 London Olympics and was developed from the ideas of children who attended workshops run by Dee and Lesley from the Stow Film Lounge.

Local Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy provided a voiceover for the film.

The winning short films will be screened for free during the weekend at the Stow Film Lounge between 2pm to 5pm, all of which are suitable for families.

An air of ‘Viva Las Walthamstow’ will be descending on the Stow Film Lounge, on Orford Road, as part of the festival.

The film lounge will screen the classic Elvis Presley film King Creole and film-goers are encouraged to dress in vintage ‘50s gear.

Elvis plays a teenage delinquent, Danny Fisher, to make ends meet and support his unemployed father. He takes a job at the King Creole nightclub as a singer, but he doesn’t stay out of trouble for long.

All the funds raised by the event will go towards supporting the film festival.