It's almost time for the ninth Keswick Film Festival which, as usual, features 30 up-to-date films that have proved very well-received by the critics recently, mixed in with some exciting pre-release films which have never been screened in Cumbria before. The Festival starts with the opening party for passholders and invited guests on Thursday evening 10th April and runs through till Sunday night, the 13th. Indeed, we have three UK premiere of Private Property starring Isabelle Hupert, The Class from Estonia and The Orchestra of the Piazza Vittorio. It will be hard to choose what to go and see and the road between the Theatre and the Alhambra will be full of people rushing up and down to see the next great film.

Other previews include the Lebanese ladies' delight Caramel, the follow-up to our screening of Control in the Keswick FebFilm event called, naturally enough, Joy Division, and others which seem likely to make a big splash when they come out: I Served the King of England from the Czech Republic, La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman) from Italy and John Sayle's Honeydripper.

Those films already on release, but which we feel deserve another screening in Cumbria, include There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Juno and The Savages, all from the USA. And then there will be many people who have not had the chance to see such gems as Water Lilies, Don't Touch the Axe, Silent Light, The Edge of Heaven and The Italian. And there will be others of course, too numerous to mention individually, but maintaining Keswick's reputation for screening films of the highest quality.

And we will be welcoming Michael Winner, who will be giving a talk to the audience at the Theatre by the Lake and presenting what we believe to be his 3 best films: Death Wish, The Jokers and Hannibal Brooks. Carl Hunter, director of Grow Your Own will be introducing his film too.

Tickets and passes are now on sale at the Theatre by the Lake and online on their website. More information about the films can be found at www.keswickfilmfestival.org or in the brochures which will be out at the end of this week.