A DATE has been set for a film festival in Wellington.

The festival, a project from Wellington Town Council, will take place on the third weekend of September in 2020 (18-20).

A Bridgwater-based company, called Somerset Film, has taken on the role of organising the festival on behalf of the council.

The film festival idea was created by the town council’s working group, created by Cllr Mark Lithgow and former cllr Ben Shepard.

Cllr Lithgow said: “Ben Shepard and I set up the working group , a couple of years ago with the purpose of making Wellington a destination town and not just a drive past place.

“One of the ideas that was put forward was to have a film festival. Films, and cinemas, far from becoming a thing of the past, are actually seeing something of a revival.

“I was tasked with taking this forward and brought this to full council and it was agreed that a budget of £8,000 would be ring fenced to support this venture.

“Wellington has never, to my knowledge held its own film festival, therefore the council were willing to be behind this.”

The idea had been in the making for some time and things were starting to fall together, until Cllr Shepard decided not to run for election in May 2019.

“I spent some time trying to find a coordinator,” Cllr Lithgow added. “However, while many people thought this was a great idea, I could not find someone who had the right skill set and time to take this on. I was losing heart by this time.

“Then in May of this year, we had the local and district elections. Ben Shepard for personal reasons decided not to stand again..”

But a new cllr, Nancy Brace-Powell, joined the town council and suggested Somerset Film to run the event.

Cllr Lithgow said: “Cllr Keith Wheatley and Nancy Brace-Powell and I have held meetings with Somerset Film to start to shape what the Film Festival will look like. We decided the film festival needs to have as a golden thread, crowd pleasing film and events, and a focus on Wellington Heritage and sustainability.

“Over the next few months Somerset film will be designing a programme to meet our needs.”