The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema Of Dreams

Move over Cannes, Edinburgh and Co - prepare to have the glam replaced by jam. In August the North East town of Nairn hosts a new film festival, inspired by childhood big-screen epiphanies, over eight and a half magical days celebrating the romanticism and mystique of cinema.

Rekindling your love for movies could be a tasty proposition. Bringing a tray of home-cooked cakes and they'll allow you to miss the already low £3 admission (per film) and plunk your eager ‘buns’ upon one of the 150 beanbags kitting out the old Victorian Ballerina Ballroom, that plays host to Tilda Swinton’s week-long curation. Yes the Nairn native, and Oscar winning actress, has teamed up with Mark Cousins of Edinburgh Film Festival fame to put some passion back into attending film festivals – sometimes too engulfed by celebrity tie-ins and mainstream media interest.

With Joen Coen also selecting films to be shown there will undoubtedly be large press attention, rather than a trickle of local curiosity, but that shouldn’t deter a marvelously imaginative and entertaining effort to take people to the pictures.