A school which saved a historic cinema screen from the cutting-room floor has won a prestigious film award.

Pupils at Newhall Park Primary School, in Bierley, Bradford, have beaten off competition from 220 schools around the country to win the Co-operative Young Film Makers of the Year award.

They will now see their movie - a scary X-Files-style story called Graduation Day - shown in all its glory on the big screen at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in October.

Martin Naylor, director of the school's film club which made the movie, said it was a massive honour to be chosen to show the film at the museum.

He said: "It's great for the school to be picked and a massive achievement for a group of nine-year-olds to make such a fantastic film."

The six-minute film features Mr Naylor's daughter Sarah, 17, as a young girl who is being chased by mysterious orange-clad aliens played by the school's masked film club members.

Mr Naylor, said: "We've got a lot of special effects in the film. We had a bit where the kids wearing the orange macs had to float up through a trapdoor which we did with a clothes mannequin on a string, and we had a lot of X-Files-style torches with big beams to create a scary atmosphere. We used some Turkish Delight in one scene to represent human flesh!

"We had absolutely no budget for the film - the spaceship we used was one I saw in a toy shop. We had to be careful how we filmed it so you couldn't tell how big it was.

"Luckily I'm a hoarder so there's a lot of things I've kept that came in useful. The orange macs the aliens wore were the one the kids used to wear when it was a wet break."

The school hit the headlines earlier this year when it asked the owners of Bradford's former Odeon cinema, in Princes Way, if it could have its silver screen when it closed.

The school is now planning to raise the screen in its main hall and is appealing for help to raise the £1,500 needed to install it.

School caretaker Mr Naylor said: "We've found a company who will put it up for us at cost and we've already raised £1,000.

"All we need now is a kind individual or company to come forward with the last £500."

Nine-year-olds Luke Helstrip, Christopher Hobson and Sheree Hoyle are pictured showing the way to do it.