A young singer songwriter from Huddersfield has starred in an award-winning short film.

James Leslie’s music career has taken off over the last year, so much so that he’s doing between four and eight gigs every week across the north in cities including Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield.

But when he was in his mid-teens he did a couple of acting courses with the London-based Young Film Academy and his tutors always remembered him.

So when the Academy came to make a short film they phoned 20-year-old James and asked him to take one of the three leading roles.

The film, called Lemons, is now out on YouTube and has picked awards up at several film festivals.

It tells the tale of loss, longing and a young man played by James struggling with his sexuality.

It was filmed on a lemon farm about 20 miles from Palermo in Sicily in February 2023.

 

 

James, of Almondbury, said: “I’ve always loved film and acting which is why I did the course in my teens. One ran for a week while the other was a two-week residential course in Cambridgeshire.

“It taught me so much and some of the people on the same course have gone on to be successful in the film industry. I made lifelong friends there and it’s the place to go if you’re a young person interested in film and TV.

“I was amazed when they phoned me up out of the blue to offer me the role in the film.”

The film was shot over a week and the four-strong cast features James, Emily Hinchliffe from Sheffield, Canadian Lochlan Munroe, who lives in London, and Sicilian Nino Calabretta who owns the lemon farm.

“It was hard going with long hours but what a fantastic experience,” said James. “The writers were amazing and came up with a beautiful script while the crew came from across Europe and were all so passionate about the project. Looking back at it now it all feels like a dream.”

To watch the film go to LEMONS – Award-Winning Student Film (youtube.com)

 

 

Meanwhile, James’s music career as a singer-songwriter is taking off and he’s much in demand across the north in pubs and clubs and also for private events.

James only picked a guitar up for the first time during the pandemic lockdown, encouraged by oldest brother Callum and he taught himself to play it watching YouTube videos.

As well as doing cover versions James has also written his own tracks with an EP and singles available on Spotify and other music platforms.

To book James go through his Instagram which is James_leslie_music, email musicbyjamesleslie@gmail.com, phone him on 07985 392486 or go through the Real Live Music agency on Facebook.

To listen to his music, go to  Acoustic guitar Singer Writer | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.