Tickets have been released for the 2019 Bolton Film Festival as the celebrated event enters its third year.

The festival returns from Tuesday 1 until Thursday 3 October 2019 and promises to replicate the immense success of previous events.

There will be hundreds of film screenings and industry talks across the three days. Tickets cost £15 for a one-day pass or £29.95 for the full festival. Student passes are available for £20.

Bolton Market Place will host the festival in The Light Cinema, with its state-of-the-art technology and facilities, and the Neo Art Gallery. There will also be a specially installed ‘Hub’ at the mall.

The annual festival has enjoyed considerable success in its short history. Voted a ‘Top 100 reviewed’ festival internationally, previous events have screened future BAFTA and Oscars winning short films.

Julie Foy’s The Silent Child enjoyed only its second festival showing at the 2017 Bolton Film Festival and won ‘Best Film For Change’ before receiving an Academy Award for the Best Live Action short film in March 2018.

Such cinematic pedigree bodes well for the 2019 Film Festival with over 150 short films showing across the weekend.

The festival’s director, Adrian Barber, said of this year’s films: “Many of them already have awards from the best festivals in the world, some are just beginning their festival journey and one of the student ones we learned just made it to the Oscars.

Budding producers can learn the techniques required to capture their own future Oscar-winning films too.

“Our line-up of speakers is off the chart this year; they have more Oscars, BAFTAs and awards between them than I can possibly squeeze on to the website,” Mr Barber added.

The three-day event will feature masterclasses on a range of subjects from networking to festival strategy, set design to sales. Thursday will witness headline talks from animators Factory, Aardman and Barry Purves.

Last year’s festival involved many students from Greater Manchester’s universities and colleges, as well as community and crowdfunded productions and short films from the BFI and Creative England.

Mr Barber said: “The response to the festival was so positive last year, we've grown in popularity in record time and expect many of our talks and screenings to sell out this edition.”

The Market Place’s Centre Manager, Nikki Wilson-Cook, agreed: “It always creates such a fantastic buzz about the town and offers so much opportunity to learn about the film industry and see the works of some of the best aspiring film-makers in the world.”