BORDERLINES Film Festival opens this Friday (February 23) and runs for 17 days at 25 venues, giving cinema-goers across Herefordshire, Shropshire, Malvern and the Marches the opportunity to catch up with some of the films that have just won BAFTA recognition – and to jump ahead of the game, with over 30 previews of films not yet released in the UK on offer.

At Sunday night’s awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, it was British film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri that won the most prizes, five in total, not only Best Picture but also Outstanding British Film and Best Original Screenplay, with Best Leading Actress going to Frances McDormand, and Best Supporting Actor to Sam Rockwell. Three Billboards screens from Friday, March 2 at The Courtyard Hereford.

The hybrid of B-movie sci-fi, horror and swooning gothic romance that is The Shape of Water won Best Director for Guillermo del Toro as well as Original Music (Alexandre Desplat) and Production Design. There’s the chance to catch it during Borderlines at both Malvern Theatres and The Courtyard Hereford.

Gary Oldman’s magnificent performance in Darkest Hour won him Best Leading Actor, with acclaim too, for the Best Hair and Make-up department on the film, which effected the amazing transformation of the actor into Churchill. Phantom Thread, a sinister romance set against the backdrop of 1950s London haute couture aptly won the Best Costume Design prize.

I Am Not a Witch, a critically acclaimed and highly original fairy tale of a small Zambian girl who is exiled to a witch camp won Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for its Cardiff-based director Rungano Nyoni and producer Emily Morgan.

I Am Not a Witch, which will be showing at two venues on the Flicks in the Sticks circuit, Brilley Village Hall on Thursday, March 1, and Knighton Community Centre (a new venue for Borderlines) on Friday, March 2 is complemented by a quartet of vibrant new films from Africa, originally screened at Film Africa, the Royal African Society’s annual Film Festival: I Still Hide to Smoke from Algeria, Félicité from Senegal, The Wound and documentary Winnie from South Africa.

Winnie, whose director Pascale Lamche will introduce the film at The Courtyard in Hereford on Saturday, March 3, reappraises the career of the controversial figure of Winnie Mandela, a topical and timely counterpoint to the appointment of South Africa’s new President, Cyril Ramaphosa.

The winners of two BAFTA categories, I Am Not Your Negro for Best Documentary and The Handmaiden for Best Film Not in the English Language, both shown at last year’s Borderlines, highlight that the programme on offer at the Film Festival is truly ahead of the game.

Titles to seek out at Borderlines 2018 are taut French domestic thriller Custody, Western, a confrontation between a group of German construction workers and Bulgarian locals over a long, hot summer, Sweet Country, a fugitive drama set in the Australian outback by Aboriginal director Warwick Thornton, and Lean on Pete, a lyrical excursion by a boy with a horse through the American West by a British director Andrew Haigh.

Tickets for all festival films can be purchased online at borderlinesfilmfestival.org. They are also available via the Central Box Office at The Courtyard Hereford, in person or by phone on 01432 340555, with the exception of Malvern Theatres, Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Booth’s Bookshop Cinema in Hay and The Conquest Theatre in Bromyard, where customers need to contact these venues directly.

Tickets for some showings are still available via the festival box office, by calling 01432 340555 or online at www.borderlinesfilmfestival.org. It may also be possible to purchase tickets for some venues at the door, although to avoid disappointment it’s best to check with the venue in advance.

Borderlines Film Festival, which was established in 2003 as part of an Advantage West Midlands Creative Industries project to develop cinema audiences and to support regional and local film, is funded by The British Film Institute through the National Lottery, Hereford City Council, The Elmley Foundation, Wyevale Nurseries.

Borderlines is now one of the best-attended film festivals in the UK, bigger than many of its longer established metropolitan rivals.

The full list of locations participating in the Borderlines Film Festival are Bedstone and Hopton Castle Village Hall 01547 530282; Brilley Village Hall 01544 327227; Bromyard, Conquest Theatre 01885 488575; Burghill, The Simpson Hall 01432 760816*; Church Stretton School 01694 724330*; Dorstone Village Hall 01981 550943; Cawley Hall, Eye, 01568 615836; Garway Village Hall 01600 750465; Hay-on-Wye, Booth’s Bookshop Cinema 01497 820322; Hereford, The Courtyard 01432 340555; Hereford, The Left Bank 01432 357753; Hereford, RNC 01432 376371; Knighton Community Centre 07751 221487*; Ledbury Market Theatre 07967 517125; Leintwardine Centre 07572 442903; Leominster, Playhouse Cinema, The Community Centre 01568 616460 / 612583; Ludlow Assembly Rooms 01584 878141; Malvern Theatres 01684 892277; Michaelchurch Escley, Escleyside Hall 01981 510352*; Much Birch Community Hall 01981 540097*; Oswestry, kinokulture cinema 01691 238167; Presteigne Screen, The Assembly Rooms, 01544 370202; Pudleston Village Hall 01568 750630*; Ross-on-Wye, St Mary’s Church Hall 07956 456290; Tarrington, Lady Emily Hall 01432 890720.

* Enquiries only, tickets on door