Film festival comes to railway stations and pubs

Railway stations, town halls and book shops will become venues for film screenings as part of a community-run festival.

The Tyne Valley Film Festival will be screening movies at 26 venues, stretching from Newcastle to Haltwhistle, in Northumberland.

Hexham's Forum Cinema is leading the festival, but shops, pubs and arts centres will all be involved.

Faye Carr-Wilson, a programmer at the film festival, said: "The unique little venues are what makes the festival feel special."

She added: "The beauty of the Tyne Valley Film Festival is that it is largely community programmed so a lot of the choices are made by the community - by film clubs, by cultural venues and cultural groups."

One of the more unsual venues is Hexham's Moot Hall.

The building dates back to the 1400s and its medieval setting will be used to screen Hammer horror films.

Venues include The Tannery pub in Hexham, Forum bookshop in Corbridge, and The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre, near Hadrian's Wall.

Films being shown include WALL-E at Newbrough Town Hall, Oliver! at Ovingham Reading Room, and Wombling Free at Forum Cinema.

The festival is running from 15-28 March.

Hexham estate agents Andrew Coulson will also be screening a film.

Ailsa Mather, from the company, said: "It's important to get the whole of the Tyne Valley involved.

"So it's nice to have it in Hexham, which is a major part of the Tyne Valley, but also smaller communities."

Follow BBC North East on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].