KAREN Gillan is to be the patron of the Edinburgh International Film Festival's The Young and The Wild strand of events.

Ms Gillan, who has acted in Doctor Who and the new Jumanji film, will be the honorary leader of the strand that will be aimed at young audiences interested in film making.

Ms Gillan is a writer and director with her first feature film, The Party's Just Beginning, currently in post-production.

Her debut short film Coward received its world premiere at EIFF in 2015.

Gillan said: “I am delighted that EventScotland is supporting EIFF’s The Young & the Wild programme for the Year of Young People 2018. "This builds on the great work EIFF has been doing for the past four years in developing and inspiring young people who have a passion for cinema.

"Through this programme young people will be able to access great international cinema, but more importantly learn from filmmakers from around the world who will visit EIFF in June.”

The Young & the Wild will offer screenings and events for young people interested in filmmaking and the moving image industries, including practical filmmaking workshops for primary and secondary schools; in-person events; masterclasses with world-class filmmakers; and special careers events for 15-25 year-olds.

www.edfilmfest.org.uk

AYR-born actor and musician Tim Dalling returns to his hometown with a new show, Aye, Coyote, which he describes as “a theatrical mixture of autobiography and trickster stories, some singing, dancing and a dollop of sacred purification ritual.”

Dalling, who won a Herald Angel award with the Tyneside comedy folk trio The New Rope String Band in 2012, left Ayr to study sculpture at Glasgow School of Art before becoming an itinerant busker, playing accordion on the streets of Europe and then working with Kneehigh Theatre.

Last year he appeared in the West End production of La Strada (based on the Fellini film) and played Father Christmas in West Yorkshire Playhouse’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The show is on at the Burns’ Centre in Ayr on Thursday, February 22 and at the Assembly Hall at Glasgow School of Art on Friday, February 23.

www.timdalling.co.uk

THE Lillie Art Gallery in Milngavie is to hold a series of free artist talks.

As part of its current exhibition, 'Landmarks, Poets, Portraits and Landscapes of Modern Scotland', it will hold talks with Alexander Moffat, Ruth Nicol and Alan Riach.

They begin January 20 at 2.30pm.

The show brings together the portraits of Scottish poets by Moffat, including Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Norman MacCaig, Edwin Morgan and others.

It also has paintings of landscapes associated with the poets, by Ms Nicol.

The show runs until February 8.

The Lillie Art Gallery is on Station Road.

www.edlc.co.uk