The countdown is on to the first Newcastle Film Festival which is set to add Hollywood style movie glamour to the city centre this spring.
Organisers are busy putting the finishing touches to the film programme for the inaugural festival which has already attracted star backing from the likes of Schindler’s List actress Caroline Goodall.
The favourite, who has also starred in the likes of Cliffhanger and The Princess Diaries, flew over to the city last May for the red carpet launch of the festival which aims to bring big names from across the world to Newcastle in a celebration of filmmaking.
She said at the time: “We need to have a film festival which not only can show the extraordinary talent in the North but also bring world cinema here as well.”
She's since been back to help organisers promote the upcoming event and their ambitious aim behind it is to develop a film festival that will be the next Cannes.
And the resort on the French Riviera - home to that famous film festival - was where the initial announcement was made last year about the Newcastle event during a suitably glamorous launch on board a yacht.
To those who ask why host the worldwide event in Newcastle, the answer is why not?
The "dream team" making it happen are North East-based talents TJ Gill, a media director and producer; business pioneer Jacqui Miller-Charlton, and Kirsty Bell who specialises in film finance and distribution; with a later addition being US director Garen Daly who runs the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival.
And they have been busy laying the groundwork for the festival which will bring filmmakers from across the world to the Newcastle stage from March 29 to April 1.
By autumn, they had received more than 2,000 entries from 80-plus countries around the world and an independent panel of judges are now whittling those down for a varied final programme which will feature everything from shorts to features, and from horror to Bollywood, to be showcased in a range of city-wide venues, not just cinemas, over the festival's four-day run.
The programme details are set to be unveiled late in January.
Garen is keen that, while the focus of the festival is international, the host region will enjoy its fair share of the spotlight, as well as a lasting legacy.
“I want to do it right; it has to make the community feel good," he said. "We want to show Newcastle and its history as one of our themes."
