The city that saw the birth of cinema is making a determined effort to snatch back young film-makers from the tempting - but often disillusioning - pull of London.
Scores of small production companies, fledgling directors and film students are about to gather in Leeds, for 10 days of screenings, competitions and negotiations about building up the framework of a northern Pinewood or Elstree.
Interest in establishing a serious film industry in the north of England has never been higher, according to Chris Fell, director of the 18th Leeds International Film Festival which has triggered the influx from the rest of the country, Europe and further afield.
"There's no longer any doubt that film-makers can make a living in the regions, and especially the north. It has always been cheaper and easier to get about and there are great locations here. Now we have got a supportive network, and we are no longer thought of as being in the sticks."
The cinema profile of the region has been helped by locally filmed successes such as Calendar Girls, The Full Monty and Brassed Off, but the less visible work of the agency Screen Yorkshire has been more practical in terms of studio start-ups.
Mr Fell said: "With the help of the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, they've been able to organise all the help necessary for film-makers who want to stay here, and for others coming in from outside."
The festival features one example in its new Caught Short project, which will see 30 new writers, producers and directors make a collection of short films during the 10 days, culminating in a gala screening. The teams have been selected from a flood of entries by Screen Yorkshire which is also providing advisers and mentors from established studios.
Other camera teams will be out on the streets where the Victorian inventor Louis Le Prince shot the world's first moving film in 1888. His mysterious disappearance soon afterwards saw most of the credit and all the money go to his American rival, Thomas Edison, but his name has been adopted by the University of Leeds school of cinema, photography and TV as well as a series of "Oscar" awards for new films making their debut in Leeds.
Anyone visiting the city also has the chance to star unwittingly in an all-night installation by the New York multi media artist Robert Whitman who will be filming in Leeds by day and then back-projecting the results on to the windows of the art gallery after dark.
The neighbouring Henry Moore Institute will be covered by a giant screen at the same time, with live film of midtown Manhattan.
"We're going to involve the whole city centre in the festival," said Mr Fell. Events include an all-night showing of dance films at the Yorkshire Dance Centre and the civic organist, Simon Lindley, improvising an accompaniment to the 1929 silent classic Queen Kelly.
The festival's international programme includes a rare chance to see all four films made by the Russian director Larissa Shapitko before her death in a car crash at the age of 40, as well as two film tributes to her by her husband, Elim Klimov.
The box office success is a new account of another talented life cut short, Amazing Grace, which tells the story of the cult New York singer and songwriter Jeff Buckley.
