Mention International Film Festivals and places like Cannes, Berlin, Edinburgh and Moscow spring to mind. But there are many other festivals celebrating the work of filmmakers and the island of Madeira hosts its own event which has slowly been growing in stature since it first started four years ago.

Just like the Spanish Canary Islands, Madeira's Portuguese roots also bring a healthy cultural influence to the island and the film festival reflects this. It does seem to be one of the more professional of the smaller European festivals that include similar events like the Cyprus International Film Festival and the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival.

There are now hundreds of film festivals organised around the world. The oldest is the Venice Film Festival which first started in 1938. Surprisingly, America's longest running film festival is not in Hollywood, but San Francisco, which features as a location in many films such as classics like The Towering Inferno, Bullitt and Birdman of Alcatraz. That festival has been taking place since 1957. In the UK the Edinburgh International Film Festivals is said to be the longest continually running event in the world.

This year's Funchal International Cinema Festival was due to take place between the 7th and 14th November, but the organisers have recently announced a change in dates and an extension to the submission deadlines. The next festival will now take place between the 10th and 17th April 2010. The event awards prizes in eight different categories with the latest festival, held in 2008, attracting an impressive international entry list.

Flythomascook.com has flights to Madeira from six different UK airports, with some one-way tickets costing as low as 47 pounds.