The festival is produced by The School of Media and Film at the University of Winchester and is sponsored by Wave 105.2FM.
The 2009 festival was launched in style at a black-tie event held at The Winchester Museum in the city centre.
Steve Brine commented; “I had literally just arrived back from our party conference in Manchester but raced into my dinner jacket and bow tie to support this excellent event. Winchester has a vibrant media and arts scene, backed up by the energy of the team at the University so it was logical we would have a first-class film festival."
Movies will be screened at random locations across the city, ranging from the Intech Science Centre to the Railway Inn pub during the week beginning October 5 2009. In all 12 venues will take part in the event and films have been closely matched to their hosts. For instance Chocolat will be played out to diners at Brasserie Blanc while visitors to Winchester Cathedral can examine questions of love, faith, and devotion in Danish film Babette's Feast.
A student filmmaking competition is running alongside the festival and an entry will be played before each of the 12 screenings. It will culminate in an awards ceremony at The Screen in Southgate Street on Sunday (October 11) evening.
"I like the irony of not showing a film at the cinema but doing an awards ceremony instead," said organiser Nicola Engler. "But the highlight for me is going to be a screening of The Great Escape in the Westgate arch, which we are going to seal off at one end."
Paul Manning, head of UOW's media and film school, said the idea behind the festival was to strengthen links between the city and the university, get people to enjoy films and encourage young filmmakers; "Filmmaking is a dynamic career opportunity for young people and we think lots of jobs will come from the industry," said Dr Manning.
"If we're not going to do banking anymore we might do filmmaking instead! Given the number of filmmakers in the area and the educated palate of people in the city, it just seemed crazy not to put on a festival for Winchester, particularly as Southampton and Portsmouth have their own. At the moment this is a prototype, it's our first and what we'd like to do is to create some momentum so we can run a festival every year."
Other venues taking place are: Winchester Discovery Centre; Buddy's Diner; Avington Park; The Railway Inn; Rimjhim; the Slug and Lettuce pub; and The Vault at the University of Winchester.
Find the festival online via - www.winchesterfilmfest.com