Glowing tributes were paid to two figures with very special connections to the Manx film industry by the UK’s leading film critic over the course of the Isle of Man Film Festival.

Mark Kermode, the chief film critic of the Observer newspaper and the co-presenter of the hugely popular BBC Radio 5 Film show, was on the island last weekend for the Isle of Man Film festival.

Appearing in his capacity of festival patron, he used the gala night, on Saturday evening, to pay tribute to two people who played a large part in the success of the Isle of Man Film industry.

Both the legendary actor John Hurt and Steve Christian, the well-respected industry figure who was one of the instigators of the Manx film industry, died earlier this year and Mark said that they had both left a lasting effect on the Isle of Man film industry.

’Steve Christian has been quite rightly credited with creating the film & TV industry on the island,’ said Mark.

’When we were putting together this event, we were looking at the films he had been involved in, going right back to the Brylcreem boys in the very early days, and the list was something like 105 movies. The problem was that we had too many to choose from.’

Mark spoke warmly about films, such as ’Trauma’, featuring Colin Firth in the infancy of his film career, and one that Mark said Colin himself credits with giving the direction the focus he was seeking as an actor.

Other notable films, such as ’Me and Orson Welles’, ’Chico and Rita’, ’Stormbreaker’ and ’Belle’ , were also highlighted as examples of some of the quality films that had been produced on the island, and came about largely through Steve’s involvement.

’Steve Christian’s legacy is that he left behind an extraordinary body of films, some really good films, and basically created the film industry, and demonstrated all the other things that the island could do,’ said Mark.

’I love "Me & Orson Welles", because I love the setting and I love the story lines, and the fact that it was shot in the Gaiety. It felt very much like a Manx movie to me.

’I think that Christian McKay is such a great Orson Welles. I’ve seen a lot of great "Orson Welles" portrayals on screen and his is absolutely the best.

’I’m a really big fan of Chico and Rita, and every time I come to the festival I meet somebody else that worked on it. It’s such a great piece of work.

’I’m a huge fan of Amma Asante. We were over here a few years ago, and we showed Belle. She had talked about wanting to come back and film on the island again, and she did.

’She shot ’Where Hands Touch’ here and I am just waiting to see that, and I’m so excited about that.

’"Where hands Touch" wouldn’t have happened if Belle hadn’t have happened and Amma has always been really grateful for all the assistance she got.

’I think people don’t realise that,’ he continued. ’Sometimes people don’t appreciate how many good films have been made in the Isle Of Man.’

John Hurt starred alongside a young Christian Bale to make 1998’s ’All The Little Animals’, which was largely shot on the Isle of Man and saw the island stand in for Somerset and Cornwall.

He made a return in 2015, when he was the guest of honour at the film festival.

’If people like that want to come and work here, that really is saying something,’ said Mark.

’There have been an astonishing number of ’A’ list actors who have come to the Isle Of Man to work, and John Hurt was pretty much at the top of the tree.

’He was the actors actor. As you saw at the Gaiety, he had the audience at the palm of his hand. He can tell a story like no other, because he has that voice.

’When people make movies, even when we lose the people, the work remains, and it was so lovely playing the clips of John’s films yesterday. You really did feel like John was in the room.

’We had a little film that Dave Armstrong made of John when he was here. The great thing is that he didn’t talk about himself. He talked about everything else.

’He talked about how much he loved the festival, and how nice everyone had been to him and that he wasn’t sure that he had done enough for them.

’Here he was at the Gaiety being given this lovely honour, but he thought that he hadn’t achieved it.’

John’s widow, Anwen Rees-Myers, was present for the tribute, and Mark said it was a sign of how much affection they both felt for the island for her to make the trip and to take part in the festival.

’It is lovely that Anwen has come back because that tells you how great the affection that they held the island in is. Anwen is such a positive force and such a great person and it is lovely to have her here. You can feel her energy in the building. I think we could all feel John smiling down from above yesterday. It was great.’

The future of the Manx film industry, Mark believes, could be based on creating films that have a more local feel to them. He pointed to the success of the comedy film ’Mindhorn’, that was released earlier this year, which was specifically based on the Isle of Man, and believes that the island can still be the home of a successful film production industry.

’The Manx film industry is at a point now where it could go anywhere,’ he said. ’What you need is regular productions. The real aim of the Manx people community here is to have stuff going on all the time. Regular productions going on all the time, feeding back into the economy.

’That is something that sometimes happens with TV projects, like in Belfast with Game of Thrones.

’That gave them that baseline to build on.

’The best thing is to be in this position where you can look at over 100 movies and go ’OK, there’s action adventure, thrillers, comedies, documentaries, 3D, animation, foreign language films. There is no base that hasn’t been covered, and now it is about sustaining that and saying "OK, let’s make grass roots films, and let’s make things with Manx characteristics, and lets make films that are proud of where they come from".

’Its to do with turning that into something that is regular. I see no reason why that can’t happen.’