Dyserth star ‘overwhelmed' after winning Hollywood award
Katie Benbow, with co-star Adam Houghton, won 'Best Acting Duo of the Year' at the IndieX Film Fest for their performances in English Rose.
The IndieX Flim Fest is an international short film festival held at the Regal LA Live in Los Angeles, California.
Katie outside Regal LA Live in West Hollywood. (Image: Katie Benbow) The film, directed by Alexander Bather from Llandudno, follows a crazed young couple as they do the unthinkable on a thrill ride to freedom, with no one to stop them.
Katie, a singer who has appeared on BBC talent show The Voice, said she initially accepted the part 'to do my friend [Bather] a favour' and did not expect the film to be received the way it has.
'My friend from home wrote this film and I wasn't going to do it but ended up doing it last minute - I was just doing my friend my favour,' Katie told the Journal.
'We didn't think it was going to win an award and then won.'
Win it did, despite English Rose being one of more than 7,000 films submitted to the awards.
Katie composed six original, 'sixties swing soul' songs for the film and also put together the entire music score.
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But brushing shoulders with big names in Hollywood was the icing on the cake.
Katie continued: 'I didn't expect it to be fancy as it was – there were lots of Hollywood actors and directors there and lots of big actors up for the same awards.
'Frank Sinatra's granddaughter, Nancy Sinatra's daughter, had a film and I didn't realise who she was.
'When she sat and watched our film and she loved it, and I said I loved her dress.'
The awards were held at Regal LA Live, a 'super swanky' cinema in the heart of West Hollywood.
Director Alexander Bather from Llandudno. (Image: Katie Benbow) Katie said: 'It was quite cool being seen as someone in the industry for a minute and was really good networking there.
'We ended up going to this fancy restaurant with people who had worked on a Ben Affleck film.
'I'd never been to LA before and I lived my American fantasy.'
The group behind English Rose hope to arrange a premier-type event in Colwyn Bay, which would show their short films and including workshopping with young actresses and directors from the region.
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