WHO needs overpriced popcorn when the 2012 Screen Bites food and film festival is all set to offer so much more?

Now in its eighth year, Screen Bites is the country’s only film fest which shows food-themed feature films alongside tastings and mini farmers’ markets of local food products.

This year’s festival, running from October 4 to November 3 features several new films – including an Oscar-winning short film receiving its UK premiere – and many new producers, joining regular farm shops, farmers and other food businesses at the mini farmers’ markets which open the evenings in village halls across the area.

The free, full colour programme, with a directory of nearly 80 local food producers, farm shops and food businesses, is available from tourist information centres, participating farm shops and in village halls and shops across Dorset, in south Somerset and in south west Wiltshire.

Screen Bites is the country’s only film festival that shows food-themed films such as Julie and Julia, Babette’s Feast, Chocolat, Eat Drink Man Woman and many more, with local producers offering their food for tasting and sale.

This year’s films include the UK premiere of the witty musical West Bank Story, a 20-minute version of Romeo and Juliet/West Side Story set on the West Bank where an Israeli soldier falls in love with an Arab girl, against the background of the Jewish-run Kosher Kabin and the Hummous Hut, run by the girl’s Palestinian family. Made for his graduation project by University of California film student Ari Sandel, it won the 2006 Best Short Film Oscar.

Another UK premiere is When Do We Eat? – the hilarious story of the ultimate dysfunctional Jewish family preparing for the Passover Seder feast.

The film screens at Holdenhurst village hall near Bournemouth on October 19. The Israeli/Palestinian theme continues with screenings of Amreeka at Broadwindsor and The Lemon Tree at the Rex Cinema, Wareham, at a joint Screen Bites and Purbeck Film Festival evening.

The audience at the Rex will be able to sample preserved lemons and other Middle Eastern and Palestinian products.

Other films this year which are new to Screen Bites audiences include the highly praised Italian-Russian film I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, this year’s runaway smash hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,  New York-based comedy Today’s Special, about a haute cuisine trained Indian chef who has to save his family’s traditional curry house, and the darkly funny Dinner Rush, described as The Sopranos meet Masterchef. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel screens at The Exchange, Sturminster Newton on November 3.

There are many new food producers taking part, including Primrose’s Kitchen, Angel Cottage Organics, the Watercress Company, Dorset Charcuterie Company, Miss Marshmellow and The Uncommon Pig.

And new venues include the village halls at Bradford Abbas, North Cadbury, Milborne Port, Holdenhurst near Bournemouth and Portesham.

The festival was co-founded by Tina Ellen Lee in 2005 and has been sponsored by Sturminster Newton-based Olives Et Al.

Other supporters include Dorset’s Famous Five, who sponsored the festival’s award-winning website screenbites.co. uk as well as individual food producers including The Dorset Coffee Company, Delicious Dorset, Dorset Blue Vinny and Blue Soup, Hall & Woodhouse , The Dorset Game Larder, The Guild of Fine Food and Mere Fish Farm.