Gritty Films had an emotional premiere of its new film made with a group of young Travellers from the Priory Project, Monkton at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven. This was the outcome of a unique film education project funded by the Film Agency for Wales exploring the the history of the Gypsy community during the Holocaust.

The film documents their harrowing journey to Auschwitz to find out more about the story of what happened to Europes Gypsies during the Second World War. Gerald Conn and artist/filmmaker Chris Elliott also worked with the young people to create animation sequences that form part of the finished film.

Take a look at the BBC Wales website where they featured the story with an extract of the film here.

Gerald Conn pitched Heart of Darkness  at the 3D Stereo Media event in Liege, Belgium in December. This was the first European co-production market for stereoscopic 3D movies and Grittys feature was one of 20 projects selected from all over Europe. It was a good opportunity to see other features that are in development and also to see the new 3D technology that is being developed.

Bob Apple, the film Gritty Films made with Cardiff Young People First, won the award for Best Animation by 20-25 year olds at the film Nation Awards in London in October 2011. Funded by First Light, Bob Apple was made by a group of young people with learning difficulties aged 14-25 with the help of scriptwriter Steve Sullivan and filmmakers Gerald Conn and Jeremy Roberts.

The film was viewed by over 2000 people on the Film Nation website and was voted film of the month. The film was shortlisted and then judged by a host of industry figures. The winning films will be shown at locations across the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 and on big screens around the UK.

Gritty Realism feature animation project, Heart of Darkness, was selected for the New Cinema Network at the Rome Film Festival in October 2011. It was one of only three feature projects from the UK chosen by Film London to be presented at the film market in Rome. The event was based in the Villa Borghese and we had three very enjoyable days in the heart of Rome where we had a generally very positive response to the project.

See the latest pilot for the feature here