Every year, usually at the end of October, I find myself rising at some ungodly hour on a Saturday morning and trusting that my sat-nav can guide me through the dark to a city I’ve never been to before.

The reason for this valiant self-sacrifice is to attend a screening weekend organised by the Independent Cinema Office.

What follows is two to three days of sitting in a cinema and watching back to back previews of films that will be released in the forthcoming months. I’ll be honest; it’s a film enthusiast’s dream and one of the highlights of my year.

Each year the event is hosted by a different independent cinema and it’s a wonderful opportunity to visit some of our country’s best cinemas, like The Watershed in Bristol or the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham. Each venue puts its own unique spin on the cinema experience.

The event is held for folk who run independent cinemas and members of film societies like ours. It’s a great chance to swap ideas and film recommendations, and the same familiar faces attend each year.

Watching something like seven to eight new films in such a short space of time can be a little mind boggling. Often you don’t get chance to react to what you’ve just seen before moving onto the next film. Usually I’m still processing my experiences days later.

The schedules can also throw up some odd combinations back to back; you can sit through a contemporary American comedy and minutes later be watching a French documentary about the Holocaust.

The greatest pleasure though is seeing a film that you know very little about and it really knocking your socks off. I’m sure that this year I will return with some films that I know the film society audience are going to love.