The society said it was using 'lunar boost technology'

Conwy-based Real Institute, last year's winners of the Film Society of the Year title, made the claim in January in the run up to Wales Cinema Day.

In an elaborate spoof, the institute claimed they had "previously unseen footage of the Voskhod 2 space mission" which had allegedly been suppressed by the Russians.

The media attention it generated has won the society the British Federation of Film Society (BFFS) award for best marketing campaign.

Now the society, which organises arts events and alternative film nights in Betws-y-coed, has come clean and admitted it was all a "little white lie".

Projecting on the dark side of the moon is clearly nonsense, and using an 8mm projector to do so is clearly nonsense David Phillips, BFFS

They say they issued a press release about the lunar projection for Wales Cinema Day as they had not had time to organise an event to mark the occasion.

It explained they planned to show Super 8 footage filmed by cosmonaut Pavel I Belyayev during the disastrous Voskhod 2 space mission of 1965.

This, they claimed, would create history by being the first film to reach the moon's surface with celluloid light.

Tracey Page from the Real Institute said she was very surprised at the amount of coverage they received and that some had believed their story.

The film society's Tracey Page receives the award

"The phone just went red hot," she said.

"We didn't want to deliberately deceive anyone but we did set it up as seriously as possible.

"Anyone who looked into it could see that it was in fact a joke and we made that obvious."

As well as extensive media coverage, they set up a laboratory complete with lunar maps, diagrams and scientific apparatus for a live TV broadcast on the evening of the planned projection.

"I did get worried at one point," admitted Ms Page.

"But the TV company were in on the joke."

'Lunacy'

David Phillips, Chief Executive of BFFS, said: "Real Institute's entirely original approach to marketing shows that it pays to be innovative - the amount of coverage it received was phenomenal.

"The brilliance of it is that part of what they said was true.

"The people were real and the mission did happen.

"But projecting on the dark side of the moon is clearly nonsense, and using an 8mm projector to do so is clearly nonsense.

"Anybody could see it was very, very funny."

The judges said the campaign demonstrated the inspired "lunacy" for which the society is now infamous.

"Its idea was not only original and witty, it said a great deal about the sort of experience you would have at one of their screenings - which as a result got a significant amount of publicity," said Mr Phillips.