SCREEN Bites, the third annual Dorset Food Film Festival, will run over three weeks from Wednesday, October 17, to Saturday, November 3, with 12 evening screenings and two family matinees.

The UK's only food film festival, timed to coincide with Dorset Food Week, will bring film and food evenings to a village hall near you and this year's films will include several titles getting their regional premiere with Screen Bites, as well as repeat showings of some of the most popular food-themed feature films.

Tastings will be provided by some of Dorset's leading food and drink producers, including Olives Et Al, Honeybuns, Hall & Woodhouse, Denhay, Long Crichel Organic Bakery, Dorset Blue Cheese and Dorset Blue Soup, Parkers Menus, Fivepenny Farm and Wyld Meadow Lamb.

At many of the events there will be displays and tastings by local farm shops, including The Green House, Washingpools, Home Farm Shop, and Jenny Goldsack's new Goldys 2.

This year Screen Bites is running a new project called Edible Playground. Nichola Motley is working with four schools across the county, helping the pupils to grow, harvest and prepare vegetables, herbs and salads.

The project is supported by The Gardens Group and Chalk and Cheese. Screen Bites is supported by Chalk and Cheese, Arts and Business and South West Screen.

Olives Et Al of Sturminster Newton is Screen Bites' main sponsor, and the festival is also sponsored by Honeybuns of Holwell.

Highlights include: Wednesday, October 17, Bridport Electric Palace L'Age de Raison - a short film about a Jewish child's explorations of religious food regulations.

Thursday, October 18, Wootton Fitzpaine Moonstruck - has Cher as a widowed Brooklyn bookkeeper who must choose between a dull and dependable fiancé and his moody brother who brings passion to his work as a baker. With Olympia Dukakis.

Friday, October 26, Martinstown Mystic Pizza - Julia Roberts stars as one of three girls working in an award-winning pizza restaurant on the Eastern seaboard, where the lives and expectations of the Portuguese community clash with the arrogant excesses of the wealthy weekenders.

Saturday, October 27, Winfrith Newburgh A Touch of Spice - described as the Mediterranean Like Water for Chocolate, this picture is set in Istanbul and Greece and follows Fanis, a boy taught by his wise old grandfather about life and love through stories of spices, now an astronomer in search of his roots.

Wednesday, October 31, Broadwindsor Mistress of Spices - Tilo is a Mistress of Spices, with an instinctive understanding of what spice is right for each customer in her Oakland store, when Doug comes crashing off his motorbike and into her life. The spices rebel in this magic realist film full of love and food.

  • Visit screen-bites.co.uk for more information or, for bookings, call 01963 32525