Please sir can we have more silent cinema?: Oliver Twist (1922) features in this year's star-studded HippFest lineup

Organisers have now released the programme for HippFest 2024, which runs from Wednesday, March 20 to Sunday, March 24, and its packed with sublime silent movies – some dating as far back as 1916 – live musical accompaniment, fascinating talks, engaging workshops and exhibitions.

A Mount Rushmore of silent era female superstars – Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Clara Bow and Joan Crawford – feature, as well as cinematic depictions of Scotland, with festival opener Peggy (1916) starring Billie Burke, who eagle-eyed folk may have clocked starring as Glinda the Good Witch in the classic Wizard of Oz.

And that is not the only wee gem which will add a Scottish sparkle to proceedings as the festival’s opening day will also see a screening of Glasgow-born filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson’s The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1933), a poignant documentary about crofting families in Shetland.

The Scottish thread weaves through the rest of the festival and takes a distinctly musical turn on Thursday, March 21 when young local musicians will accompany shorts from the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive in the annual New Found Sound screening.

And people can learn about the life of a Scottish locations manager with a visit to Callendar House – setting for key scenes in the popular Outlander telly series – and an illustrated talk from a speaker in the business of transforming some of Scotland’s best-known landmarks into backdrops for big budget blockbusters.

Hollywood heroines, in front of and behind the camera, feature in Stella Maris (1918), starring “America’s Sweetheart” at the time, Mary Pickford and directed by Frances Marion, who also created The Wind (1928), starring another legendary leading lady, Lillian Gish.

The 1920s roar again at the HippFest Friday Night Gala with the Clara Bow flick Mantrap (1926) – an entertaining battle of the sexes which gives way to a glamorous gala after film party.

If you thought Dickens’ tales begin and end with the BBC drama department, then check out one of the earliest adaptations of the great novelist’s work with 1922’s Oliver Twist, starring Lon Chaney and a very pre-Superman turn from Jackie Coogan.

Saturday afternoon and nights are alright for thrillers and crime dramas and include the original Goodfellas template The Racket (1928) about an honest cop who vows to bring down his Capone-like nemesis in corrupt, Prohibition-era Chicago.

HippFest is not HippFest without Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy and their comedy pal like Buster Keaton.

Gasp at Saturday morning’s Jeely Jar screening of Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) and then guffaw at a Stan and Ollie’s The Second Hundred Years (1927) and The Finishing Touch (1928).

HippFest director Alison Strauss said: “I am thrilled this year we have been chosen as the festival to host the world premiere of the prestigious new restoration of ‘The Wind’ from New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and I am over the moon that we have secured the means to commission a new accompaniment for Jenny Gilbertson’s rarely screened Scottish masterpiece ‘The Rugged Island’ for the exceptionally talented Inge Thomson and Catriona MacDonald.”

Visit the website for tickets and more information.