A fantastic array of films ranging from Scottish premieres and rom-coms to documentaries and comedies is heading for the Highlands, writes

Susan Welsh

dedicated to freelance film projects, while James, a professional wildlife and landscape photographer, occasionally works in the venue’s cafe/restaurant.

Festival director Paul said: “It is the job of a film festival to look outwards and to celebrate all the diversity and differences that make this world so wonderful.

“In this festival we honour our differences by joining together work from around the world; if only everyone were as welcoming.”

All movies will be shown at Eden Court, Inverness.

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Hot on the heels of the Inverness festival comes news of the 13th annual Cromarty Film Festival.

Among the guests appearing will be best-selling author Denise Mina, acclaimed journalist Lesley Riddoch, sound engineer to the stars Stuart Wilson and directors Zara Balfour and Vicki Lesley.

They will introduce some of their favourite films and more at the festival which takes place in the Black Isle village from December 6-8.

Residents are building a new, permanent cinema due to open in January but until then they’ll enjoy seeing movies in a host of pop-up cinemas and quirky venues ranging from the famous Cromarty Lighthouse to an old slaughterhouse and coffee shop.

The festival will open in style with a selection of short films curated by Glasgow Short Film Festival projected on to the side of the lighthouse.

Moviegoers can warm themselves by keeping close to a roaring fire brazier and with a dram.

Highlights include Denie Mina discussing the enduring appeal of Charles Laughton’s extraordinary 1950s expressionistic thriller The Night Of The Hunter, with Robert Mitchum in terrifying top form as a psychotic preacher.

Lesley Riddoch introduces her favourite film, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and also presents her own film, Faroe Islands – The Connected Nations.

This event includes a bonus screening of Shutdown, documenting Greenpeace’s occupation of a Transocean rig off the shore of Cromarty this summer.

Meanwhile, Inverness curator Lawrence Sutcliffe will present two obscure Scottish B movies which are “so bad they’re good” – The Man From Planet X, which sees a spaceship landing on an isolated Scottish moor, and David Lean’s Madeleine, based on the true story of a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family who was arrested in 1857 for the poisoning of her lover, leading to “the trial of the century”.

Festival tickets go on sale at The Hugh Miller Institute, Church Street, Cromarty, on Saturday November 16, from 10am-12pm, for Film Society members and Festival Friends, and from 1-3pm for everyone else.

● From November 17 to December 4, tickets can also be bought from Eden Court box office, 01463 234234.