DESPITE a gruelling five years of post-production, Wagga director Carolyn Harris' film has been nominated for best film and best actor at the Golden Egg Film Festival in Mexico.
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The project called Escape to Entrapment began while Ms Harris was studying for her master's degree at Charles Sturt University and is a true story about convicts escaping Sarah Island prison in Tasmania.
"We recently completed the film and put it into the Golden Egg Film festival to test the water," she said.
"Good film festivals are difficult to get into so I was excited when Escape to Entrapment was accepted and literally shaking when the notice for the nominations came through, I really didn't expect two nominations," Ms Harris said.
Through extensive research about the escaped convicts and the lone survivor Alexander Pearce, the story is one of men enduring rugged conditions and cannibalism as they seek freedom from a convict penal colony in 1822.
Shot in just nine days, the film spent five years in post-production before a final print was produced.
"I sold my house and put every cent I had and lots of cents I didn't into its completion, but what was important to me was having the liberty to put on film an Australian story that needed to be told," Ms Harris said.
Hobart teacher Jayson Morrison plays the part of Greenie in the film and was nominated for best actor.
"I picked up the phone and there was a text message saying that I'd be nominated for best actor, it was quite surreal."
The Golden Egg Film Festival runs from April 30 to May 7 in Cancun, Mexico.