A STUDENT film buff with cerebral palsy has picked up a youth Oscar in Hollywood.

James Gover, 23, of Briarwood Close, Leigh, edited the film Border Patrol, which won the foreign film category at the Student AcademyAwards in Los Angeles, known as the youth Oscars.

James worked on the film while studying film editing at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Doctors had previously told James he wouldn’t be able to walk or talk.

He said: “The film featured at the Cannes Film Festival and then went round to other festivals.

“It got entered for the youth Oscars, but we didn’t think we win anything.

“We were absolutely amazed.

“I was able to work on the film at university. It took about three days to edit, but the film was made over four months on location in Germany.

“I couldn’t go to Germany because I have a problem with long journeys, because I have a wheelchair and special equipment.

“Luckily I was able to do it all in the UK by computer.”

Border Patrol is a dark comedy, written and directed by Peter Baumann, about German police on the Bavarian-Austrian border who skip work to watch soccer.

However, their plans are scuppered when they find the body of a suicide victim in the woods near the Austrian border.

They contrive to make the body the Austrians’ problem, even though they saw it first.

Although Baumann is from Munich, Germany, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences credits the United Kingdom as the country of origin for the film because he made it while a student at the Northern Film School in Leeds.

While the honours are bestowed by the Academy, they are not to be confused with the annual Oscars.

This ceremony focuses solely on students, has just five categories and hands out medals instead of gold statuettes.

Past student winners include Spike Lee and Trey Parker, and Oscar winners John Lasseter and Robert Zemeckis.