Sometimes living outside of the city can leave you feeling a little culturally bereft – no popping in to see the latest art exhibit at PICA on the way home from work on a weekday evening, no visiting the little wine bar down the street for a quiet drink with friends on a Sunday night – these are the things I miss about the city. But living in the South West provides host of benefits the city can’t even come close to matching – clean beaches, friendly neighbours – and my personal favourite – CinéfestOZ.

CinéfestOZ is back for another year as the South West’s premier cultural event. Set over 5 days, from September 09 to 13, the event is a heady mix of Australian and French cinema, visiting screenwriters, actors and directors, and gastronomic delights to please even the most cultured of us. This year’s Festival is set to be even bigger and better than last year, with a planned Western Australian film premiere, and events too top secret to be mentioned just yet (but I can say Busselton has never seen anything like this before!)

The celebration of film is a worthy cause. The ultimate form of escapism, a good film can take you places your imagination had never dreamt to go. CinéfestOZ was embraced by the local community wholeheartedly last year, and the Festival was a raging success. CinéfestOZ 08 attracted visitors from all over the state, and I even met visitors from interstate and overseas visiting the region for the film festival, injecting valued tourist dollars into the local economy at an usually quiet time of year.

Jack in the box are proud to be associated with an event of such standing, and if you would like to be kept up to date with CinéfestOZ happenings, log onto http://www.cinefestoz.com and sign up for the newsletter. It’s packed with Festival news, ticketing information and film reviews. And to all of you who made it to CinéfestOZ 08 – I will see you in the cinema at CinéfestOZ 09! Thanks for supporting such an important community event.