Bradford International Film Festival has been a long-running major event in both the film world calendar and the local events schedule, and in its heyday has attracted some major names from the UK and international film scene.

Names as diverse as Pierce Brosnan, Ray Winstone, Barbara Windsor and John Hurt have all stepped through the National Media Museum's doors as part of the festival in the past.

Given that Bradford is the UNESCO City of Film, it is only right that the film festival is big, busy and internationally renowned. However, the National Media Museum has not been without its troubles recently, facing the axe last year when parent group the Science Museum was facing stringent cost-cutting measures.

Now there are fears that plans to "rethink" the festival could see it being scrapped altogether. This is something that simply must not happen.

With the regeneration of Bradford city centre continuing apace and the Broadway shopping centre due to open next year, Bradford city centre is getting busier and busier and this festival is exactly the sort of jewel in the crown that should be attracting people from far and wide.

Rething and retrench by all means, to freshen up the festival and take a look at whether it is attracting the most people. But what comes out of it should be a bigger and better festival, not something that might be lost permanently, or watered down so much that it becomes inconsequential.

Perhaps the way forward is to make the festival more populist, or at least add some strands that appeal to the general public as much as the film buffs so that the greatest possible audience is reached.