THE UK's largest rural film festival will kick off in Ledbury and nine Herefordshire villages with the screening of a number of major new releases.

The sixth Borderlines Film Festival gets under way in March and runs for two weeks, with the best of world cinema on offer.

On the opening night, Friday, March 28, films will be screening simultaneously in Ledbury, Moccas, Garway, Gorsley, Bodenham, Bosbury, Burghill, Ewyas Harold and Little Dewchurch. The opening films are The Band's Visit, Brick Lane, Control, This is England, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, The Counterfeiters, and The Lives of Others.

Borderlines Film Festival director David Gillam said: "Normally you'd be hard pressed to find many of these films outside the big cities so this year Borderlines is to combine some of the best of world cinema with some of our friendliest local venues. Hereford's the Courtyard and Ludlow's Assembly Rooms will screen 30 contemporary films including a batch of this year's BAFTA nominations."

Among the festival highlights this year, as well as the annual BAFTA Premiere and Film & Disability Day, there will be screenings of the Romanian film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, that won both the Palme D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival and was recently voted Best European Film of the Year.

There will also be a season of the most important films by great European Directors such as Pedro Almodovar (Women on The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown), Luis Bunuel (Belle de Jour), Jan Svankmajer (Alice) and Wim Wenders (In The Course of Time/Kings of the Road).

Borderlines' partnership with Arts Alive's Flicks in the Sticks, and its previous guest list of people like Jo Brand, Monty Don, Sophie Fiennes, Stephen Frears and former Film Night front man Barry Norman, has helped turn it into Britain's biggest rural film festival.

Mr Gillam added: "This year's venue list is bigger than ever: All Stretton, Ballingham, Bodenham, Bosbury, Brilley, Burghill, Church Stretton, Ewyas Harold, Fownhope, Garway, Gorsley, Hay, Hereford, Ledbury, Leintwardine, Leominster, Little Dewchurch, Ludlow, Michaelchurch Escley, Moccas, Presteigne, Ross and Tenbury Wells."

For more information on the film festival visit the website www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk