IT was billed as Britain's biggest rural film festival and, as towns and villages from Kingsland and Clifford to Ballingham and Burghill joined in for the fifth Borderlines Film Festival, it proved to be the best.

The 2007 Borderlines Film Festival hosted more than 125 screenings and film events across Herefordshire, Shrop-shire and parts of Powys and Gloucestershire.

At the end of the 10-day festival, director David Gillam was delighted. "What a great buzz there is during the Festival and not just in The Courtyard where Gabrielle, The Collector, Miss Potter, Pan's Labyrinth, China Blue and Ten Canoes all sold out.

"Country audiences also gave Borderlines the thumbs up: there was standing room only at Gorsley for The Cave of The Yellow Dog, at Michaelchurch Escley for Pather Panchali and in Ledbury for Volver. The festival is really bringing rural audiences back to cinema."

One of the most enthusiastic audiences proved to be the patrons of the Green Dragon in Bishop's Frome, who were treated to a pub premiere of Mike Jackson's A Pocket of Hops. Landlord Simon Durrant showed the films free and collected donations for St Michael's Hospice. "The response has been overwhelming," said Simon. "We put on extra showings and still had to turn 30 to 40 people away."

Among the Borderlines' highlights was Greenham - 25 Years On, with Carry Greenham Home introduced by Amanda Richardson and Bridget Jones 2 director Beeban Kidron, and Jane Jackson's A Common Cause. Jackson had filmed a group of Chester women protestors in 1983, including mother-of-three Patricia Pulham. Now a grandmother who has since served 13 prison sentences for her beliefs, Pauline told her audience: "I'm still campaigning."

Borderlines' Film and Disability Day also proved a big draw, said organiser Naomi Vera-Sanso. "We attracted an audience of more than 100 with people coming from Shrewsbury, Telford and London."

One of this year's top films was Real Life on the Black Mountains, a locally-made short film about Craswall's Dorothy Howells own movie-making in the 1970s. As Borderlines came to a close, festival organisers announced that Real Life on the Black Mountains has been chosen for screening at this year's Hay Festival.