Step aside Cannes as Holmfirth Film Festival plans revealed

Aug 20 2009 By Nick Lavigueur

The inaugural festival will close with a gala ball and celebrities will be invited.

Ideas for 2011 are already being thrown about, including a day devoted to Mirfield star Patrick Stewart.

The event is a far cry from only two years ago when the Picturedrome almost became a pub and costs forced owner Peter Carr to stop showing films.

But with just over nine months to go, organisers are now seeking film enthusiasts who would like to be involved with the festival.

Contact: info@holmfirthfilmfestival.co.uk or www.holmfirthfilmfestival.co.uk

Fact file: a brief history of Holmfirth film makers Bamforth’s

BAamforth's were the Holme Valley’s silent film pioneers ahead of the Hollywood studios

James Bamforth started in 1870 as a studio photographer and began the production of magic lantern slides around 1883 before moving into moving pictures.

He mostly produced slapstick and humorous films at his Station Road base over two brief periods, 1898-1900 and 1913-1915.

In all, 125 films were made before the First World War halted European distribution, took away many of their actors and led to a shortage of the chemicals needed to develop the films.

Bamforths never resumed their film ambitions, switching to postcard production.

By the end of the war Hollywood was well established, but Holmfirth was on its way to obscurity.

A later generation of the family destroyed much of its film history, leaving present-day historians with only a partial but tantalising glimpse of this early potential.