As the town staged the Heart of England International Film festival - the largest of its kind in the UK this year - the independent moviemakers jetted in from Cambodia to Croatia right across to Puerto Rico.

And Vagabond Beaumont, director of nominated Machetero, summed up the feelings of nearly two dozen film-makers who arrived for the start of the epic event: "It's awesome man.

"The venues are fabulous and Tamworth, and its people, are so cool. I feel really feel at home here."

More than 200 films, from one minute to three hours in length, have been submitted from film-makers representing 31 countries across the globe - as Tamworth takes the cinematic spotlight for a week.

On Monday night, the local authority, led by mayor Gerry Pinner, gave the film-makers and festival director Nick Hudson a terrific welcome at a champagne reception in Tamworth's ancient castle.

Council leader-in-waiting Bruce Boughton thanked the film-makers for choosing Tamworth as its centre for their festival and said he hoped it would be here for years to town.

Festival director Nick Hudson said that Tamworth was an apt setting for the "theatre of dreams" where independent film-makers can realise their life's ambitions.

The event, which has a Tamworth Tinseltown Night on Wednesday and a gala awards night on Friday, closes on Saturday with the charity film premiere of Radio Cape Cod at the Odeon cinema.

Tickets are £10 and can be obtained from the Odeon and the Tourist Information Centre as well as the festival shop in Ankerside. All monies are going to St Giles Hospice and NSPCC