Film-maker Mat nominated for BAFTA

Dad-of-two Matthew “Mat” Newman, whose parents Philip and Brenda are retired Burnley College lecturers, has had his name put forward for the prestigious accolade for editing “Drive”, starring A-lister Ryan Gosling.

Matthew (36), a former pupil of Simonstone Primary School and Gawthorpe High School, is up against editors from four other films, “The Artist”, “Hugo”, “Senna” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” in the Best Editing category.

His proud dad, of Woodside Road, Simonstone, said: “It’s a dream come true for Matthew, he’s always wanted to do this. He loves his work but it is 10 years since he worked on his first Hollywood film so he has been working really hard. We are very proud of him.”

“Drive” is also nominated in three other BAFTA categories, for Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.

Matthew, who now lives in Berlin with wife Stefanie (36) and children Marie Josephine (4) and nine-month-old Joel, had his first taste of Hollywood when he worked as a production assistant on Martin Scorsese’s award-winning “Gangs of New York”.

His dad said he was always on set and the experience was a huge learning curve, also providing him with the chance to work alongside Hollywood greats.

He later went on to edit episodes of “Miss Marple”, “Doctor Who” and Victoria Wood’s “Housewife 39” before getting the job as editor of “Drive”, which tells the story of a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a getaway driver.

Mr Newman said: “Matthew is delighted. He rang to tell us he thought he had been nominated and when we checked, he had.

“It’s very fulfilling for him. His best experience was on ‘Gangs of New York’ because he was production assistant but he was driver to the cameraman. As a result, he was on set and that’s where he learned a lot of the ins and outs of film-making.

“When they were making ‘Drive’, he was emailing us saying he was driving around with Ryan Gosling doing stunts in car park blocks in LA. It’s a fantastic achievement.”

Matthew is currently in Bangkok making the sequel to “Drive” and his dad said he eventually wants to become a director.

“He has always been very self confident and from the age of 15 he was making and editing his own films.

“We’ll be watching to see how Matthew gets on,” he said.