A filmmaker says showing his film at the Cannes Film Festival was “a crazy and unreal experience”.

Ben Barton, who lives and works in Folkestone but was born on Romney Marsh, described being part of the world famous film festival as a dream.

His film, Stella Erratica, had a touch of stardust added to it before it hit the big screen at the festival in France last month.

It tells the story of a cosmonaut on a journey to a distant planet where he finds something unexpected on the alien landscape.

The late David Bowie backed the project after the spacesuit Mr Barton hired was required by Mr Bowie’s production team on the video of Blackstar.

As compensation, the team and Mr Barton came to a deal where Bowie agreed to fund the film – shot entirely in the rare Super-8 format.

Mr Barton, a former pupil at the Marsh Academy, said: “I’ve been to many film festivals and events before, but nothing could prepare me for Cannes.

“It’s the most famous and prestigious festival in the world, and I’m so lucky that I had such an amazing experience there.

“Having an official premiere at the Palais des Festivals has to be up there. I was so worried people wouldn’t turn up, but I pretty much filled the cinema. It was incredible.

“I’d worked so hard on the film, for almost two years, so it felt like a culmination of all that. My son, Karl is also in the film. So seeing him up there on the big screen was a special moment for me.

“I had lots of positive feedback, with people saying they loved the way the film looked, the colours, and the soundtrack. I was overwhelmed.

I even had a distributor interested in buying the film for the French market. That was totally unexpected.”

There was lots of intrigue when a spaceman was seen walking around Folkestone beaches in October 2015.

Stella Erratica was filmed entirely around Folkestone and has taken Mr Barton two years to complete.

He added: “Next I’ll be taking Stella Erratica on the road, submitting it to film festivals here in the UK and hopefully getting the chance to show it again a little closer to home this time. I’d really love to do another event here in Kent.”