First Ashfield Film Festival hailed as a great success

The festival opened on Thursday, September 8 – the same day the death was announced of Queen Elizabeth II.

Despite this, the decision was made to continued with the festival, which was backed by Ashfield Council.

The festival opened with two special screenings of the The Littlest Rebel, starring Shirley Temple, which was the very first film shown at the Byron Cinema in Hucknall when it opened back on November 2, 1936.

The weekend also featured Star Wars and Back to the Future fan events, special sing-along movies, children’s films and special anniversary screenings of classic films, including ET.

Mark Gallagher, boss at Hucknall’s Arc Cinema, which hosted the festival, said: “It was definitely a success, despite the obvious sad news of the Queen’s death having an impact on numbers.

"The fan events were brilliant, the Back to the Future event was absolutely fantastic and people were coming out of the films going through their goody bags and loving it.

"We also had the DeLorean car outside as well and I’ve been looking for an excuse to get that car here since we opened, to be honest.

“The Star Wars event was brilliant too, the guys we hired in the costumes were fantastic.

"So all in all, it was a great success, the feedback was great and I hope we can do it again next year.”