Pensioner who runs film club among Bafta nominees

AN 87-YEAR-OLD woman who organises a film club for residents at her retirement home is in with a chance of rubbing shoulders with the stars of the screen at the Baftas.

Lorraine Lake Nepstad, from London, is among nine finalists shortlisted for Bafta’s For the Love of Film award.

The prize celebrates the public for contributions to their communities through film, with the year’s two winners invited to the Bafta ceremony along with a guest each.

A judging panel featuring the likes of director Amma Asante, broadcaster Edith Bowman and director Paul Greengrass selected the shortlist from nearly 300 applicants.

As well as running the monthly film club for five years, Ms Lake Nepstad organises a committee to select films for the viewers by vote.

At Christmas and Easter, the group hosts a cake and mulled wine sale to raise money to pay for the films.

She was praised for her energy and enthusiasm, with those who put her name forward saying that she brightens the lives of those less able with her love of cinema.

Angie Wordingham, a cinema assistant manager from Norfolk, also featured on the shortlist. She has worked at the Cromer Regal Movieplex for 39 years after taking a cleaning job at age 12, then graduating to ushering aged 14.

She was praised for the effort she makes with the regular customers, many of whom she knows by name.

Others on the shortlist include Elizabeth Banks, from Brighton, who produces the Oska Bright Film Festival, Pat Church, from Suffolk, who has been at the heart of the Abbeygate Cinema for over 50 years, and Jane Mayo, from Argyll, the chairman of a community trust operating Campbeltown Picture House, the UK’S oldest continually opened cinema.

The For the Love of Film award was launched last year and was awarded to two people: Iain Maccoll, who has helped to run a mobile cinema that tours the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and Dan Ellis, the founder and managing director of Jam Jar Cinema in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.

Amanda Berry, Bafta chief executive, said: “We’re proud to shine a light on dedicated individuals from across the country, people who do what they do purely ‘for the love of film’. I can’t wait to meet the winners at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Feb 2.”

The two winners will be announced in January and will also win an overnight stay at the Savoy Hotel in London.