Snubbed by Screen Yorkshire and the Leeds Film Festival, see the short film that’s now up for an Oscar

if it was the plot of a Hollywood movie, it would be dismissed as being too far fetched. A former teenage cancer patient from Leeds whose movie failed to secure funding from Screen Yorkshire, was made anyway, rejected from a film festival in his home city, and could now win an Oscar – on his birthday.

Tom Bidwell, who celebrates his 27th birthday on Sunday – is flying to Los Angeles on Friday to attend the most glamorous event in the cinematic calendar hoping to see his short movie, Wish 143, win an Oscar.

Tom, who has written for Casualty and Eastenders and whose last play was staged at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2009, will rub shoulders with fellow nominees Colin Firth, Natalie Portman and Helena Bonham Carter at the star- studded event.

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The 83rd annual Academy Awards, held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, will see movies like The King’s Speech, True Grit, Black Swan, 127 Hours and Inception battling it out for the title of Best Film. The most important award of the night for Leeds writer Tom, however, will be the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

“I can’t actually get my head around it. It feels like my brain’s been bent a little bit,” said Tom, who lives in Horsforth.

“I keep thinking about the fact that Jeff Bridges is going to be watching a clip from my film. That’s as good as winning an Oscar as far as I’m concerned.”

Wish 143, tells the story of David, a 15-year-old boy who has terminal cancer. The Dreamscape foundation makes the wishes of terminally ill children come true, and when David is asked for his wish he says it is to lose his virginity. While the film is not autobiographical, it is inspired by Tom’s experiences when he was 15 and was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

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He said: “I was in hospital a lot when I was younger and had cancer. The film’s not directly based on anything that happened, it was something I dreamt up one day. I told a friend when I first came up with the idea and she said it was the worst idea ever.”

Tom’s friend was not alone.

While the idea excited director Ian Barnes and a number of actors who went on to appear in the film, Tom and the producer were unable to secure funding from Screen Yorkshire.

A Screen Yorkshire spokesman said: “Screen Yorkshire met with Tom and recognised the potential of Wish 143, but sadly, the support programmes that we had on offer at the time didn’t fit with his requirements. We are thrilled that despite this, Tom not only managed to get his project off the ground, but has gone on to achieve such incredible success and recognition.”

Tom said: “They wanted us to go through a nine month development process and we had the actors on board already, so we were worried that if we waited we wouldn’t be able to keep them interested.”

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Fortunately the director Tom had teamed up with, Ian Barnes, is a regular director on Casualty and the production, even though it features mostly Yorkshire actors, was moved to Bristol where the hospital soap is based and where the director could get it made.

The movie cost £15,000 to shoot, which was funded by the creative team, an independent company and the BBC Film Network. Veteran actor Jim Carter and Yorkshire actress Jodie Whittaker were both keen to play the roles of the Priest and Maggie.

Tom said: “They liked the script when they read it, which was really nice and both said they wanted to be in it. It was actually quite nerve-wracking to think about Jim Carter reading my script.”

With Bradford performing arts school Stage 84 pupil Sam Holland playing David, the short film was made and then the producer and director began submitting it to festivals. Tom was disappointed when he heard that Leeds International Film Festival decided against programming it.

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Chris Fell, director of the festival said: “Congratulations to Tom and the filmmakers for their Oscar nomination. Leeds International Film Festival can only show so many, and unfortunately we could not present Wish 143 in 2010.”

The rejection from the festival was more than made up for when Tom heard the news that his film had been shortlisted for an Oscar.

He almost wasn’t going to make this weekend’s ceremony, until his old high school stepped in to provide the money to pay for the trip. He said: “They have a fund that it used to help career development of former pupils. I think I’ll be doing free workshops there for a lot of years to repay them.”

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