Corinne Orton, co-director of the Dunoon Film Festival, is reflecting on the level of audience commitment shown at the inaugural 2013 fest. ‘We had a screening of Wadjda, which is a Saudi Arabian film, and there was a problem with the subtitles, but people stayed on to watch the film. We were just amazed. It’s a fantastic film anyway, but it was kind of like this community thing where they’re like, “Is this what’s happening?”, “Yeah, I think so”. They obviously have a passion for foreign cinema so we thought, let’s bring some more of that back.’

The programme for the 2014 festival has a healthy dose of cinema both local and international. Japanese animation Howl’s Moving Castle, Guatemalan road tripper The Golden Dream and Scottish-Bosnian documentary Finding Family sit beside homegrown classics like Whisky Galore and I Know Where I’m Going, with Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl opening the fest (Murdoch himself will be in attendance). There’s also a special screening of little-known fantasy short Black Angel, which exists thanks to the largesse of one George Lucas.

‘It was a 1980 short film that was screened before The Empire Strikes Back on its original release,’ says Orton, ‘and it was made by Roger Christian, a director, who had worked on Star Wars with George Lucas. Lucas gave him the money to make this short film, and it was partly shot in Dunoon, so it’s really fitting, and we’re going to bring it back to the town for the first time.’

Dunoon Burgh Hall and Studio Cinema, Fri 12–Sun 14 Sep.