Lights, camera, action! From cinema staff to filmmaker

Producer Nathalie Grace was working at the Duke of York’s cinema in Brighton when her mother gave her the book that would inspire the movie.

Home for Christmas was shot at the Duke of York’s and tells the story of a fairytale obsessed cinema worker who is looking for her own happy ever after.

Although initially released three years ago, last month it was uploaded on Amazon.

It stars April Pearson (Skins) and Karl Davies (Emmerdale, Game of Thrones).

Nathalie said: “I’m married with two kids now but once upon a time I was in search of my happy ever after. I worked at the cinema at the time and I connected with the character through my love of film.

“Brighton is so underrated as a filming location. You don’t see much of Brighton on screen and if you do it tends to be the grittier urban side rather than the creative lovely and happy side.

“We tried to feature all of the best bits of Brighton and shot in the cinema itself which is beautiful and gives you a real sense of community.”

Nathalie was initially excited when the movie was bought by a distributor after filming completed in 2014.

However, this turned to disappointment when the film remained largely unseen.

Nathalie said: “It was so frustrating because we came off the back of a really successful tour and everybody loved the film.

“This year we went to the distributor and told them that if they were not going to do anything with the film then we wanted it back.”

After getting back the rights, it was uploaded to Amazon Prime where it is finally finding its audience.

“It’s now doing really well in America which is a little bit surreal,” said Nathalie.

“I feel glad for Brighton because there’s lots of people who would not have heard of the city watching the film all over the USA.”

Home for Christmas will be Jump Start Productions’ 11th feature film. The company was formed in 2009 by director James Patterson and Ms Grace.