ATOUCH of the glamour and sunshine of the Cannes Film Festival came to Southend yesterday as the town launched its very own version.

The Southend mud may not have been quite a match for the blue Mediterranean, but Southend Film Festival organisers proved Essex has the girls, not to mention the movies, to give the South of France a run for its money.

The programme for the 2015 festival was kicked off by a bevy of what were once, in pre-politically correct days, known as beach babes.

In traditional Cannes style, they were covered by a couple of beach balls, a lifebelt, and not a whole lot else.

As balls and babes bounced across the Southend sand, Paul Cotgrove, the festival organiser, said: “The Southend Film Festival has now become established as a key part of the town’s calendar, and audience numbers are growing every year.

“We thought we’d celebrate the launch of this, our seventh festival, with a bit of fun, making a nod to the Cannes tradition of starlets romping in bikinis on the beach.”

The further tradition, of starlets “accidentally” losing their bikini tops, was not adopted on this occasion.

This year’s festival will open with the gala night premiere of a new spy thriller, Age of Kill, starring Martin Kemp as a former sniper whose daughter is kidnapped.

As a ransom, he has to take up his former profession and kill six people. Anouska Mond, one of the film’s female leads, said: “I play a policewoman who is hot on the trail of the killings.

“It’s a fantastic action film with some great parts.

“It’s absolutely amazing we have been chosen to open the Southend Film Festival, which is now getting a great reputation.”

Over 40 films will be screened in the course of this year’s festival, which is being supported by the Echo as its media partner, covering every type of genre, from Paddington to “Sex Death and Celebrities: 1980s British Horror Cinema”.

Paul Cotgrove said: “We’ve placed particular emphasis on supporting independent film makers. We have nine brandnew feature films in the lineup, two of them made in Southend.”

One film-maker who may be exhibiting at future festivals is Dani Thompson, one of the foursome on the beach.

Her first screenplay, Call Me, drawing on her life as a model, has just been filmed.