The Ocean Film Festival World Tour is returning to the UK this autumn, bringing an evening of inspirational and jawdropping ocean films to almost 30 venues across Britain and Northern Ireland in September and October, including dates across Dorset.

A selection of ocean-themed short films from all over the globe will be showcased at the festival, celebrating the mysteries of the big blue and documenting the pure magnificence and wonder of the ocean.

This remarkable programme will be coming to Lighthouse, Poole on September 5; The Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne on October 11 and The Regent Centre in Christchurch on October 12.

Viewers can expect incredible seafaring voyages, majestic marine life, breathtaking cinematography and a rare glimpse into barely explored depths of the planet.

The event, which originates in Australia, features a brand-new selection of short films, with action and spell-binding footage from both above and below the water’s surface.

For 2017, the film programme sees intrepid freedivers explore haunting shipwrecks, nomadic sailors face the icy waters of Antarctica, and features awe-inspiring marine life such as humpback wales and the endangered Giant Pacific Mantaray.

“We’re delighted to be bringing the Ocean Film Festival World Tour back to UK audiences for the fourth year running,” says tour director Nell Teasdale.

“Featuring incredible cinematography, the films capture the raw beauty and power of the ocean, while celebrating an eclectic and fascinating mix of characters who live for the sea’s salt spray.”

Highlights from the 2017 Ocean Film Tour include:

Sea Gypsies

Infinity and her crew are about to embark on an extraordinary voyage: 8,000 miles from New Zealand to Patagonia, taking in the intimidating iceberg-strewn waters of Antarctica along the way.

And just as this is no ordinary journey, this is no ordinary ship with no ordinary sailors. Infinity was built by hand in the 1970s and lacks some of the usual reinforcements considered necessary for such an extreme expedition. That doesn’t deter her crew: a handful of free-spirited nomads, brought together by a love of the open sea and the search for freedom.

Whale Catchers

High on the rugged cliffs above New Zealand’s Cook Strait sits an unusual group of “citizen scientists”. This motley collection of men in their 70s and 80s are keeping watch for humpback whales as part of the Cook Strait Whale Count – a study into the recovery of New Zealand’s humpback population since the end of New Zealand whaling in 1964.

It’s tiring but rewarding work, but there’s a reason that the volunteers are so good at the job. Not only are they descendants of New Zealand’s 200-year history of whaling, they were all once whalers themselves…