Falmouth University lecturer Mark Jenkin has won the Nick Darke Award 2014 which comes with £6,000 which will be used to develop his feature film screenplay Old Iron.

Speaking after the award ceremony at the university’s Performance Centre, Mark said: “This award validates the idea I originally had for the screenplay and buys me some time to thoroughly research the subject as well as writing a couple of drafts.”

Mark is the great-great-great-grandson of celebrated artist Alfred Wallis, who he has based his winning story upon. Old Iron is the untold story of Alfred, his restless search for home, and eventual catharsis through simple self-expression that inadvertently changed the art world forever.

Mark was presented with his award and the cheque for £6,000 by Roger Michell, theatre, television and film director whose work includes the films Notting Hill, Changing Lanes and Morning Glory, and Jane Darke, widow of Nick Darke.

Mark is a lecturer on film and marine and natural history photography courses at Falmouth University and is the author of the SLDG13 Film Manifesto that promotes the aesthetic and practical benefits of handmade celluloid work.

His studio is within the Newlyn School of Art and as a member of the prestigious Newlyn Society of Artists his short-form work has been exhibited in galleries in the UK and across Europe.

He grew up in Cornwall and started making films at the age of 15. His first job was a production assistant in the animation department for the ground breaking BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs.

At the same time he wrote his first mini feature screenplay Golden Burn, raised the finance and shot the film in Cornwall over two weeks in the summer of 1999. The film was completed in late 2001 and selected for the Celtic Film and Television Festival in 2002 where Mark received the First Time Director Award.

He has recently completed principle photography on the latest film, Bronco's House. Having raised the finance privately and shot the film on 16mm film on clockwork Bolex he is now busy hand-processing the 6,000ft of black and white negative in his studio. The production has been supported by Falmouth University with film students taking up key creative and marketing roles within the team.

The Nick Darke Award, funded by Falmouth University, commemorates Cornish writer Nick Darke, who contributed to Cornwall's writing community. Although he wrote in many forms, Nick Darke was most prolific in the world of theatre, screen and radio, through which he earned his living.