An ULVERSTON actor has won an award for best actor at a film festival in the USA.

Steven McGarry starred in the short film ‘Silver Planes,’ a story of a father struggling to make ends meet and faced with not being able to afford Christmas present for his son, he has to get creative.

The film was entered in to the Reading International Film Festival in Philadelphia.

Mr McGarry flew out to the ceremony with the film's director, 18-year-old Finley Clifton.

The film proved successful and picked up the Best Student Film award in addition to Mr McGarry being awarded Best Actor in a student film.

Talking about the trip, Mr McGarry said he was “blown away” by the whole experience.

When he arrived he didn’t know awards were being given to actors so to then be announced as a winner was a huge shock.

He was also amazed by the high standard of films at the festival.

“There were so many great films being shown, anyone could’ve won in my honest opinion,” he said.

Young director Finley Clifton was full of praise for Mr McGarry.

He said: “I knew Steven had done incredibly during filming.

“He might have been surprised to win Best Actor, but I think he definitely deserved it, he did so well.”

Mr McGarry said the success in Pennsylvania has definitely encouraged him to push forward with his acting. He has already secured an audition at ActUpNorth drama school in Liverpool.

He has also had interest from another director to be involved in their productions.

“My dream scenario would be to star in more plays and get more involved in the theatre side of acting,” he said.

Mr McGarry will also continue to perform at the Dukes theatre in Lancaster where he started acting.

And he said a big thank you to everyone at the Dukes who have helped him get to this point. He said: “For me, all this comes from Alex Summers at the Dukes, who gave me my first acting opportunity.”

Steven and Finley are already filming their next project, a feature addressing the issue of homelessness in the UK.