Step aside Cannes as Holmfirth Film Festival plans revealed

Aug 20 2009 By Nick Lavigueur

STEP aside Cannes, Venice and Sundance.

Holmfirth – the true home of movies – is set to launch its own film festival.

The Holme Valley town was at the forefront of the silent movie industry when local photographer James Bamforth began to produce short films in the late 19th Century.

Now, more than a century later, film fans are set to roll out the red carpet and launch a glittering new week-long festival.

The event, running from May 22 to 29 next year, will centre on the Holmfirth Picturedrome, an important monument to the silent era that once made Holmfirth Britain’s answer to Hollywood.

Organiser, Stephen Dorril, said he was surprised there wasn’t a festival already considering the area’s rich history of film and TV.

Mr Dorril, who is the film journalism course leader at Huddersfield University, said there would be a day of Bamforth’s films and a day dedicated to Huddersfield’s most famous theatrical son, Hollywood star James Mason. He said: “Obviously Holmfirth is an important aspect of British film history.

“It was right there at the beginning as one of the first film studios. “The festival will have a northern flavour but we will also be showing some new international films.

“And we’re also going to link up with the Huddersfield Literature Festival and get some of the script writers involved.”

Huddersfield University’s music school students are planning to compose their own movie sound tracks.