A FILM maker planning to shoot a feature-length production on the outskirts of Keighley says the project could be in line for an important funding boost.

Francis Lee has been busy hunting for suitable locations in Keighley and Haworth for his film God’s Own Country.

This will explore the lives and livelihood of people on a small Yorkshire farm. The story will centre on the family of 20-year-old Johnny, who have worked the land on a Yorkshire Pennine smallholding for generations.

Johnny has to take responsibility for the farm, as his father is partly paralysed by a stroke and his grandmother is too old to work. However, his world is thrown into confusion when his elders draft in a Romanian migrant worker to help with lambing.

Mr Lee will make part of the new film at Far Laithe Farm, Laycock, which is owned by his father, Carson Lee. The shooting is scheduled to begin in and around Keighley in spring of next year.

Mr Lee, who is from Halifax, said: "God's Own Country has now been selected for development with the national iFeatures scheme.

"We are on the short list of 18, and at the end of development iFeatures will fund three films, which is not bad odds."

The iFeatures initiative – which is co-funded by the British Film Institute, BBC Films and Creative England – was set up to help dynamic but low budget productions reach their full potential.