HELLO and the very warmest of Tamworth welcomes to an event that literally would have been just a Hollywood scriptwriter’s dream less than a year ago.

The 2009 Heart of England International Film Festival is set to take the UK movie-making business by storm – and be the biggest event of its kind this year.

Take a bow as ‘Tinseltown’ is coming to Tamworth from June 8-13 and it’s not a Star Wars mirage but for REAL – in reel time.

The stars are coming out to play for an event that will see movies of every genre screened for FREE from one minute to 100 at the town’s Casa bar (formerly the Palace cinema and for years the town’s only picture house) and the historic Globe Inn next door.

As US comedienne Joan Rivers – for many a rich man’s Ruby Wax – put it so beautifully earlier this month “being in the public eye makes the world your home town.”

And Joan, who will be seen in Larry Grossman’s debut film The Hipsters at OUR FESTIVAL, must have been referring to the Tamworth event making its premiere bow in the cinematic circle of life.

For one incredible week the world will be gazing up Lower Gungate as Tamworth hits a spotlight usually reserved for the likes of the legendary Cannes.

More than 200 film-makers from 31 different countries – across the continents from Cambodia through Croatia to Costa Rica – have submitted their blood, sweat and tears in a bid to be among the 24 who step up to collect their Heartys at the festival’s glittering Gala Awards banquet on Friday June 12 at Tamworth’s Castle Hotel.

The final day of the festival will be staged on historic Bosworth Battlefield and then the scene will move to the ODEON cinema, Tamworth, for a WORLD charity film premiere of Andrew Silver’s Radio Cape Cod, with ex-EastEnders star Tamzin Outhwaite.

The red carpet, last seen for the Queen at the opening of Ankerside, will be rolled out again – and charity in the shape of St Giles Hospice and NSPCC will be the winners.

As Britain frets about a recession with no end in sight and official figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that almost one million FEWER Americans, Russians and foreigners visited Britain in the first three months of 2009, this festival is set to break the mould.

French pacesetter Cannes felt la crise (the credit crunch) last month with sparkling rosé replacing champers and official coiffeur Jacques Dessange taking only 15 hairdressers to the event instead of 20 – poor darling.

As the proud new owner of this festival, with a link-up to the worldwide network of movie-making submissions across Asia, Africa and the Americas from Binda Singh and his House of Amritsa, I believe we are set to bring a hat-trick of hoorahs to a region which prides itself on ingenuity, enterprise and plain, old-fashioned hard work.

For Tamworth, its people and budding Dickie and Dora Attenboroughs, this ground-breaking 2009 event offers:

• Cultural exchange – Hollywood-genre filmmakers mixing with the local movie-making talent
• Raising the tourism profile of the area to an international stage
• An economic boom to the district which cannot be over-emphasised

As Tamworth steadies itself for this INTERNATIONAL event, the town’s civic and business partners have shown their total commitment to staging the festival.

Our main sponsors – Aucott Holdings – are part and parcel of the very fabric of this great, expanding community, having helped build Ventura Park.

They, along with the likes of Asda, jewellers SP Green, the Taroni family and the Peninsula restaurant have backed this inaugural project 110 per cent.

Sue Arnold and her commercial team at Haselour House Media, websites A Town Called Tamworth and BestofTamworth have offered invaluable support as have our screenings venues Casa, Globe Inn and Bosworth Battlefield; media partners Tamworth Herald and Touch Radio and festival week home base and gala hosts, the Castle Hotel.

The list is endless, the Odeon cinema, Tamworth, Hollywood director Andrew Silver and the management of Ankerside shopping centre.

Like an acceptance speech, I wonder who I have left out.

Above all, I would like to thank Tamworth Borough Council – economic development boss James Roberts, Elanor Thompson and Sian Cricketts in person – for their unflinching efforts in enabling this event to blossom. For someone who spent the best part of his life in the Midlands, it gives me immense pleasure to see Tamworth hosting this movie-making experience – and thanks must also go to the movie suppliers, film-makers, writers and directors for making it happen and for those who will be crossing the oceans to attend the event.

All the world’s a stage and Tamworth has found itself perched on the global cinematic apron.

When the credits roll on Monday – it will be Lights, Camera and plenty of Action as this ancient and noble town reaches for the stars.