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.

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.