Film festival in fight to save Wellington cinema

Four recent movies will be shown during The Clifton Film Festival, which it is hoped will build on the success of a similar event held in October.

The films will all be held on Saturday nights at Belmont Hall in New Street, Wellington.

The festival will open on April 9 with Nick Hornby's Brooklyn, which tells the tale of an Irish immigrant moving to New York's tough Brooklyn district in then 1950s.

The latest James Bond film Spectre will be shown on April 16, with Daniel Craig playing the indomitable spy who heads on the trail of a sinister organisation after receiving a cryptic message from his past.

A very different film will be shown the following week when Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, and Helena Bonham Carter, will take on the battle of women's liberation on April 23.

The festival will draw to a close on April 30 with Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van, starring Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings and Dominic Cooper in a tale about a man who forms an unexpected bond with a transient woman who lives in a motor caravan parked in his driveway.

The Clifton Project has so far raised £31,000 for its £500,000 campaign to buy the building, which operated as a cinema from 1937 to 1987, and was later used as a Dunelm store before closing in 2012.

The group wants to turn the site in Bridge Road into a community arts venue with a 100-seat digital cinema.

The scheme has been backed by playwright and film director Mike Leigh, best known for his 1977 comedy of manners Abigail's Party, and Only Fools and Horses star John Challis.

Members of the Clifton Project had been selling shares in the building in a bid to buy it and had.

Spokeswoman Fiona Hunter said: "We have thousands of signatures from supporters who wish us to realise the vision having signed a petition delivered to Telford & Wrekin council."

The share offer was suspended last summer following reports that the building had been sold to a developer, but the group said there had yet to be a formal planning application for the site, and the old cinema was still registered as belonging to Dunelm.

"Whatever happens, we have an army of people who love this building and who want to see a new venue for entertainment, arts and culture in our town - and we are committed to making that a reality," said Mrs Hunter.

All films start at 7.30pm, with doors opening half an hour before.

Tickets are £5 on the door, or can booked on the website www.theclifton.org