MORE than 30 international guests, including delegations from as far away as China and Japan, will arrive in Bradford for the International Film Summit.

Among them are the newly-crowned UNESCO Cities of Film - Galway in Ireland, Sofia in Bulgaria and Busan in South Korea. Bradford UNESCO City of Film was influential in supporting the three cities’ bids to become part of the prestigious network of international creative cities.

Bradford UNESCO City of Film Director David Wilson said: “I am delighted to be welcoming guests from around the world and it gives me real pleasure to be playing host to three new Cities of Film.

“We will use the conference to share knowledge and look for collaborations we can work on in the future that will benefit our cities culturally, economically and socially.”

Declan Gibbons, manager of Galway Film Centre, said: “Over the last 25 years Galway has developed as a hub for film and television production and more recently for animation as well.

“Being situated on the edge of Europe we were keen to explore new collaborations, and the Creative Cities Network provides literally a world-class networking service for creative industries. with some of the most exciting and innovative cities on the planet counted among its members.

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"The purpose of our visit to Bradford is to actively participate in the summit and to learn from the first UNESCO City of Film how the designation has positively impacted on the city and how we can collaborate on future events and projects.

"We are delighted to help bring the Cinemobile from the heart of Galway to the heart of Bradford, a unique and highly practical exampled of how the Twin Cities of Film can work together. It’s the first of many joint projects, I am sure.”

Nearer to home, delegates from York will be attending as the new City of Media Arts and Dundee as UNESCO City of Design The Chinese delegation includes visitors in the film and television industry from Shenzhen, home to 15 million people and southern mainland China’s major financial centre, Jingdezhen.

The international and national UNESCO guests will be attending several of the events across the three days and will be formally welcomed at a civic reception at City Hall hosted by the Lord Mayor. Councillor Mike Gibbons.