Regent Cinemas to launch annual International Film Festival for 18th year

After an initial postponement of the 12-day motion picture bonanza due to lockdown, Regent Cinemas general manager Kelly Davis is thrilled to have 36 movies on offer from 17 different countries.

"Usually it is quite difficult to get art house films into a regional market and we rely heavily on the bigger Melbourne and Sydney film festivals that happen before ours," Ms Davis said.

"The films are usually already in Australia and we can jump on the back of them.

"This year there were movies for us to choose from, not as big a pile of movies, but it was a very easy decision for us to get them.

"They're desperate for these movies to get out into the public and be seen on the cinema screens instead of going straight to streaming services."

Ms Davis said there's been several tickets sold and huge interest around the festival.

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"Over the years we've certainly had a few take annual leave at work so they can spend the 13 days going to movies," she said.

"It's always wonderful to see those faces back supporting the arts.

"There's still that hesitancy out there going out in public and coming to the movies, but we hope the titles we've got, there's everything from comedy to romance, thriller to drama, true stories and quality acting from all across the world to entice them in."

The festival starts on Wednesday night with French film Delicious, loosely based on the first restaurant in the world, and runs through to October 24.

Regent Cinemas will screen 35 titles this month, with the 36^th, I'm Wanita, the story of a country music singer from Tamworth who follows her dreams of stardom, to be combined with a question and answer session after the film on Sunday, November 7.

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