When Vicky Jewson was 19 she wrote a screenplay.

One year later, she secured a loan to wine and dine potential investors to stump up the £1.4m needed to finance her first cinematic endeavour.

Just two years after that she released – nationally – her first commercial feature-length film.

Not bad for a 22-year-old from Boars Hill, Oxford.

The fact, however, that her debut film, the romantic comedy Lady Godiva, was given a rough ride by critics (including yours truly), has done little to douse the flames of her passion. For make no mistake, Vicky IS a film-maker.

“Movie making is all I’ve ever wanted to do and all I ever want to do”, she claims, and while Godiva marked neither a Spielberg nor Scorsese-style entrance into the world of cinematic blockbusters, it left little doubt she was a talent to be reckoned with.

Especially since other now-great directors have their skeletons too... Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) directed the risible Finian’s Rainbow, James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic) directed Piranha II: The Spawning and M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) directed Wide Awake, a critical and commerical flop of Howard The Duck proportions.

Which is why it should come as no great surprise to learn that Vicky is already hard at work on her next project, Born of War, a tough, gritty thriller which, like Godiva, also features Oxford in its plotline.

Last week Vicky staged a launch event for investors at Summertown restaurant Gees, where she predicted: “If all goes according to plan, we are set to shoot in March and the film will be ready to begin releasing in September.”

Ambitious, certainly, but thanks to her baptism of fire with Godiva, Vicky is no stranger to scepticism.

As she admits: “When making Godiva, I do remember my London PR agency telling me not to expect great critical reviews as they warned me Lady G was not a critics’ film. However, with the head of Lionsgate feeding back comments such as: ‘You obviously know how to tell a story’ and that it was a very impressive piece – I really had no idea.

“I was upset initially; not because I didn’t know there were critical flaws within the film, but because of the way the reviews were picking up on my story of raising the cash and making a feature film and turning it into a very negative spin like I was some young upstart.”

Nevertheless, Vicky confesses the barbs took their toll.

“It did knock me, but a lot of film-making is picking yourself up off the floor and carrying on. And I’m very proud of Godiva. It launched me and my company on to the worldwide stage.

“My next project is going to benefit immensely from all the contacts we now have and the people who are backing us and believe in me. As a first-time director, I simply didn't have access to this.”

Vicky claims that only a day after ‘wrapping’ Godiva, she was writing Born of War (see below).

The idea for its story was born on a bumpy plane trip to Scotland.

“After making Godiva I was exhausted and had caught shingles,” she recalls. “And there I was in this tiny plane, ploughing through dense clouds, and we couldn’t see a thing.

“It was noisy as hell and it tested my nerves. So I began to imagine a young woman who had no fear, who had been through so much that fear no longer affected her like it did ordinary people.

“And on this project I’m a mixture of writer, director and producer.

“It’s so hard to get a film made that you have to multitask.”

Not surprisingly, there were three lessons learned from Godiva that Vicky believes will steel her during the making and release of this, her second feature.

“One, I never give up,” she says. “Two, storytelling. Make it real, pacey and alive.

“And three, how to begin a film and end it. I worked for two years at the back end of Godiva, once it was made, in order to see it get out there. As a film-maker, the making of the film is only one small part of it.”

As for the dream?

“To be able to make two films a year that I direct, and two that I fund and support from up-and-coming film-makers.

“I want to build my company into the next big British studio.”

Focussed, fiercely committed and above all, likeable, you can’t help but wonder if Vicky’s dreams will be realised with a Hollywood ending...