LEGENDARY movie producer David Puttnam is supporting Keighley’s RATMA international film festival.

He has filmed a special message to play before the festival’s gala screening of winning entries this month.

Lord Puttnam’s big-screen appearance at Keighley Picture House will launch a major expansion of the already-successful annual RATMA day.

He is allowing organisers to screen his own debut on film, a video for Paul McCartney’s solo single Maybe I’m Amazed which was filmed in the 1970s.

Lord Puttnam, who spearheaded the revival of the British movie industry in the 1980s, is the first of several film-world notables who have pledged support for RATMA.

These include Steve Abbott, Monty Python’s manager and the producer films like A Fish Called Wanda, and Mark Herman, director of British hits like Brassed Off and Little Voice.

Both men are likely to be heavily involved in a spin-off event at the 2016 RATMA festival, My First Film, which will screen debut short movies of nationally-known directors and producers.

RATMA director Marcus Gregg said: "We have invited famous and successful film makers to revisit where it all began for them as a way of encouraging up-and-coming film makers to keep at it.

"We already have several promised additions to the project which we hope will result in an amazing collection of films from the likes of Mark Herman, Steven Spielberg and Terry Gilliam."

RATMA, the River Aire Ten-Minute Amateur international film festival, was established in 2013 by Marcus Gregg, a tutor at the Keighley Campus of Leeds City College, and his students.

The festival has in the past two years attracted hundreds of entries from film-makers as far afield as Australia, Ecuador, Sweden, Spain and Israel.

This year more than 60 short films will be screened to the public at Keighley Campus on April 25 from 10am to 4pm, with a 7pm gala screening of winners at the Picture House cinema.

Mr Gregg gained Lord Puttnam's support several months ago when they began work on the My First Film project.

He said: “Our first approach was to David Puttnam, who very kindly provided us with his first film. He prepared a three-minute intro and spliced it to the film. The whole thing is only five or six minutes long.

“David was a photographer in the 1970s and worked with Linda McCartney. When Paul left Wings his first single was Maybe I’m Amazed and David suggested he made a film to promote it.”

Mark Herman has offered to introduce his debut film in person during next year’s RATMA, and film students from around the UK will be invited to have an ‘audience’ with the director.

This year’s RATMA is open to the public, and admission is by donation. Proceeds will go to Cancer Research UK. Visit ratmaff.weebly.com for further information.

RATMA will show some of this year's entries at a pop-up cinema this Saturday in the Airedale shopping centre, next to the Next shop, from 10an to 3pm.