Look up Ealing in any encyclopaedia and the word film will appear.

But despite Ealing's historical importance to film making, Haven Green's film festival tomorrow (Friday) is a first-time event for the town.

It is the brainchild of 34-year-old Greenford film director Brian Moore, who said: 'Ealing is the second most filmed borough in London and boasts historical film studios, but it offers no support for film making.'

'The first step was to get some films together to show just how many ideas there are.'

Brian and Lyn Cockett, chairwoman and executive producer of his company Levelheaded Productions, tapped the reservoir of British talent for films.

Entries came from film makers of all ages and backgrounds.

And on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, 20 of them were shown to a panel of judges, which included the Ealing Times, Ealing Council's director of environment, John Birch, and its film officer Mike Liddall.

Eight films were eventually chosen to be screened at Haven Green tomorrow evening. They contain black humour, quirky ingenuity, fantasy, intriguing love triangles and introspective human study.

Brian hopes screening the films will show people the extent of Britain's untapped film making talent. 'We'd like to see the festival get bigger next year,' he said. He is also hoping to get celebrities such as Michael Barrymore and Hugh Laurie involved in the event to raise its profile.

After the festival, he will be turning his attention to his own work ,, a 10-minute comedy filmed mainly in the streets of Ealing and starring Hollyoaks star Linda Rooke.

It is called Pat and opens, intriguingly, with a cow falling on a car in a country road, but he won't give any more away.

Brian describes it as the first Ealing comedy to reflect the borough's cultural diversity and he's hoping to film it in October and screen the premiere at Ealing's UGC cinema in November. Ealing Council has donated £900 to the project, but raising the £15,000 budget has been a frustrating business.

'If I don't get the funding, I'll take out a loan.'

The Ealing Film Festival opens at The Haven, Haven Green tomorrow, from 7.30pm until 9.30pm. Entrance is free. Call 020 8758 5743 for more details.