SKIPTON has been chosen as the location of a major new international rural film festival due to take place for the first time next Spring.

Part of the Great Place: Lakes and Dales (GPLD) programme, which seeks to address the inbalance of young people in both areas, the ‘Hinterlands’ festival will celebrate films set in the countryside for both rural and city dwellers, curious to know what life is like away from urban centres.

A collaboration with award winning arts organisation, Wild Rumpus, it will take place from May 16 to May 19, and will include a traditional film festival format alongside creative activities including performances and interactive, dramatic celebrations.

Screenings of classics and brand new titles will be held in and around Skipton using locations from the Plaza Cinema to woodland, heritage sites and unused spaces – as well as sites that previously featured as film locations.

There will also be director talks, workshops, performances, short film competitions and a wide range of family programming designed to inspire audiences to rethink the countryside.

Future Hinterlands festivals are planned to be held in a different town every year across the Lakes and Dales area, which stretches along the rural corridor from Grasmere to Skipton.

Geoff Bird, festival artistic director, said some of the most exciting and provocative films of recent years had been filmed and set in the countryside.

“The likes of Winter’s Bone, God’s Own Country and Dark River strip away cliches to examine life lived away from major urban centres,” he said.

“Hinterlands will set these new titles within a tradition of classics from The Railway Children through to Withnail and I to Kes, and hopefully inspire a greater understanding and appreciation of this fast-growing genre.”

Festival organiser Rowan Hoban, of Wild Rumpus, said: “It will celebrate films with green, natural spaces at their heart. We hope the festival will prove to be a catalyst for more year round film activity.”

GPLD, a project funded by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, announced the festival at its recent two day Creative Connections conference held at Broughton Hall.

Lindsey Hebden, GPLD programme manager: “We’re thrilled that Hinterlands will shine a light on our unique landscape through film and cinema, celebrating and interrogating the sense of place and developing new creative partnerships. We hope to engage young film-makers and creatives and look forward to seeing Hinterlands established as an annual fixture on the Lakes and Dales calendar.”

Councillor Richard Foster, leader of Craven District Council, said: “I’m delighted that this new international film festival is to be held in Skipton next year. Craven and the Dales have provided very popular locations for film-makers over the last few years, which boosts the local economy and helps promote the area to the world. In fact, when one company shot a Netflix series in Craven last year, they estimated they had spent around £450,000 on accommodation, travel, food and other costs. I look forward to Craven hosting this major new festival, which will celebrate films created in and inspired by the Lakes and Dales.”

For further information about the festival, the programming and how to get involved sign up for more information at: hinterlandsfestival.org.uk