Festival flyers Pic: New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival

The third annual New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival is set to be the biggest yet with 40 film screenings over nine days.

This year’s festival will see 23 venues, such as Shades Pool Hall on Deptford High Street, The Old Police Station in Amersham Vale and Sanford Housing Co-Op on Cold Blow Lane, to name but three, transformed into a temporary cinema.

There will also be two open air bike-powered cinemas. Fordham Park will play host to a screening of South London cult sci-fi Attack the Block; while over at Telegraph Hill Park there will be summer lovin’ pedal-powered Grease sing-a-long.

The Free Films Festival group was founded in 2010 with a helping hand from the National Lottery and British Film Institute.

The festival has four branches in South London, with one right here in Lewisham, even though it is one of only two London boroughs not to have a cinema.

The festival, which first came to Lewisham in 2012, is expected to attract over 2,000 visitors this year.

It is run by volunteers and aims to bring communities together through free “feel good” film screenings across a whole host of local venues.

Last year in New Cross and Deptford alone, the festival attracted over 1,000 people through 23 events held at 13 venues across the borough.

The festival will run from from Friday 25 April to Sunday 4 May