Tilda Swinton founds strangest film festival ever.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 | 4:25 PM

Tilda Swinton is starting a small festival in her hometown of Nairn in north-east Scotland. She's passed up what I feel is a key opportunity to capitalize on her recent Hollywood role by calling her event "Nairnia" or the like, instead going with "The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams." Tickets to films will cost £3 or a tray of baked goods, and everyone will sit on beanbags to take in "films with highly coloured, dreamlike elements," according to the Guardian.

Part of the impetus behind the festival is Swinton and [co-organiser Mark] Cousins' idea that "Money dictates the festival circuit too much, and fogs the pure, romantic obsession with film." He added: "There are too many film festivals all trying to do the same kind of thing - what is there if you pare away all the frocks and the fuss? It amuses me that Tilda Swinton, who has been up all the red carpets, wants to do this - there's a degree of punk about it."

The festival, which is set to take place in August, sounds equal parts twee and incredible, with this piece of news certainly falling under the latter category: Joel Coen will be programming two nights, and though his selections have been kept a secret, Cousins promises that "They are as daft as a brush. If you went through 5,000 films, you would never guess them."

The festival will run from August 15 to the 23rd.

[Photo: Swinton in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," Buena Vista Pictures, 2005]