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Film, News

The Cost of the Crown Wins Best Film

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The Cost of the Crown has had another major win – Best Film at the WLV Screen Awards.

Moe travelled to Wolverhampton yesterday to see our latest film screened at the Wolverhampton-based festival, and came away with the award for Best Film.

It’s our second screening, and our second award. The film won Best Cinematography at Leavesden in April.

The Cost of the Crown is an historical drama. It follows a king as a mob of his angry followers try to knock down his door. It takes place over just a few minutes.

We made the film at Nu Boyana studios in Sofia, Bulgaria, and shot it at more or less the same time as The Haunted House Hotel.

News, Short Stories

Mat Growcott Wins Dinesh Allirajah Prize 2026

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I’m very proud to announce that my story, In His Life, won the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for 2026.

I was delighted (and surprised) to come away with the top prize. at the awards evening, which was held on Tuesday night (May 5).

In His Life is the story of a father and son going to The Dog and Lamb pub to see a Beatles tribute band. Real life returns, and the joy of the night is short-lived.

Comma Press will release an anthology of all the shortlisted stories, including In His Life. The theme for the competition this year was ‘fandoms’, and stories were as ranged as you can imagine. I can’t wait to see them all.

Judges praised In His Life for the relationship between the main characters, its structure and its control of tone. Judges called it a “powerful piece of work”.

They said: “We admired the careful control of tone and exposition, the elegant structure, and the writer’s unflinching attention to the complications of the story’s central relationship.”

Organisers set up The Dinesh Allirajah Prize after Dinesh’s death in 2014. It was a reflection of his love of writing short fiction. This is the prize’s ninth year. It’s run with the University of Lancashire.

Deeply proud of the story. I’m happy judges connected with it. Thank you, also, to the shortlisting and longlisting teams.

Film, News

The Cost of the Crown Wins Award at Debut

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The Cost of the Crown had its premiere at Leavesden Short Film Festival late last month, and it won an award.

The film, which was directed and co-written by Moe Acharki, was shown to an audience of Warner Bros. Studios staff and came away with an award for best cinematography. And it really is a beautiful film!

It’s a fantastic start for the film. We now obviously hope will go and get a few more screenings in the near future.

The Cost of the Crown is an historical drama, following a king as a mob of his angry followers try to knock down his door. It takes place over just a few minutes.

Here’s the synopsis:

With his kingdom in tatters and his subjects baying for his blood, the king hides in his throne room praying for a last-minute reprieve. But with the mob at the door, who can he trust?

We made the film at Nu Boyana studios in Sofia, Bulgaria, and shot it at more or less the same time as The Haunted House Hotel. It’s exciting to finally have both films out in the wild.

News, Short Stories

Mat Growcott Shortlisted for the Dinesh Allirajah Prize

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I’m extremely proud to announce that I’ve been shortlisted for this year’s Dinesh Allirajah Prize.

I’m not able to speak about the story yet. It will be available as part of an anthology published by Comma Press.

Organisers set up The Dinesh Allirajah Prize after Dinesh’s death in 2014. It was a reflection of his love of writing short fiction. This is the ninth year for the prize.

Our stories had to be on the theme of Fandom, which allowed me to revisit an idea I’d actually vaguely had back in 2010 or so, for a competition that I think involved Terry Pratchett. It’s always so cathartic to finally get a long-held idea on paper, and doubly so when it not only find a home, but is shortlisted for an award.

Tickets for the online prize giving event are available from here. You can read the original press release (if you have a Book Brunch subscription) here.

Blog, News, Novels, Short Stories

New Short – New Updates

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A new short has been written and submitted for a competition! And while I’m not going into details at this point, it’s one I’m quite happy with.

To start with, I’ve had some problems with the website over the last week or so. When I’ve tried to reach it to post updates, it hasn’t loaded. I’m not sure if this is a me problem or an everybody problem, so it’s something I’ll keep an eye on.

Onto the short. It’s for a competition and I’ve decided not to talk too much about competition shorts from here on. They like anonymous judgment – no name or contact details on the manuscript. And while it’s unlikely the judge will jump onto Google to try and find details, it’s also not really in the spirit of things to post too much. So for now I’ll keep it secret.

All I’ll say is it deals with themes of masculinity, dementia and being trapped in a life that isn’t your own. It follows a father and son who had a bad relationship, but who now rely entirely on one another.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting some other updates. Some thoughts on submitting Nepo Baby, and an exploration of storytelling in film through three versions of The Secret Garden. I’d like to write more often about storytelling, but time is short and sometimes the website doesn’t work. We’ll see what happens.

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