THERE will be a variety of premieres for audiences at this year's Central Scotland Documentary Festival in November.

In its sixth year, the festival at the Macrobert Arts Centre will feature 23 films, transporting viewers across the world with deeply personal stories on a series of urgent and important issues.

The festival will feature a world premiere, two European premieres, five UK premieres and nine Scottish premieres, having received submissions from 21 countries.

It will run between November 3 and 7 at the Macrobert, curated and presented by film programme manager Grahame Reid.

The festival will open with the Scottish premiere of The Oil Machine by Edinburgh-based filmmaker Emma Davie, which explores the economic, historical and emotional entanglement with oil by looking at the conflicting imperatives around the North Sea fields.

Highlights of the festival will include the world premiere of The Ballad of Bessie May by last year’s festival jury award winner Oliver Guy-Watkins, an explorative journey following the LARP community.

European premieres include Taimoor Choudhry’s Real Fur, an eye-opening undercover investigation about the true cost of the fur farming industry in Canada.

Also screening in Europe for the first time is No One Told Me, a raw and honest observational documentary about the post-partum experience.

Curator Grahame Reid said: “We are thrilled to bring this programme of innovatively told stories from both award-winning filmmakers and inspiring new filmmaking talent to audiences this year.

“Since opening up our festival submissions last year, it has been a joy to see so many bold and exciting pieces of work coming in from both Scotland and around the world.

“2022 represents our most wide-ranging programme to date and we are excited to continue building what Cent Scot Doc Fest can be and to welcome new audiences joining us on our journey.”

There will be much more with a Scottish premiere for Retrograde, a film by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director Matthew Heineman, which captures the final nine months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan from the perspectives of the last US special forces units deployed, a young Afghan general and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as the country collapses.

Visit macrobertartscentre.org for tickets and more information.