Wellington Film Festival organizers will premiere the film a year before the 2025 event

A PREMIERE screening of the film is being held as a stopover event by organizers of the Wellington Film Festival, which is still a year away.

They will screen Shalbourne, the first feature film written, directed by and starring actress Caroline Corrie, which won the Best Foreign Feature Award at the Woman’s Eye Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.

The costume drama is set in 1905 and is filmed primarily on the South Devon coastline, with key locations also including Cotay Estate, near Wellington, and Fursdon House, near Tiverton.

Ms Corrie will be visiting the Wellesley Cinema in Wellington for a Q&A with festival vice-chair Keith Wheatley after the 7.30pm screening on Sunday 3 November.

Mr Wheatley said: “In an era when Hollywood blockbusters can have budgets of $100 million or more, the making of Shalbourne is a remarkable story of sheer determination and perseverance.

“Shalbourne is not only beautiful to look at, but is also an exploration of the harsh constraints of life as a privileged woman in Edwardian England.”

Ms Corrie, who made all the costumes herself, said: “Yes, you can still make a feature film yourself if you have kind and talented friends, seven years’ patience and a sewing machine.”