The Horsham Film Society was formed in 1967, with the group's first meeting in 1968 at the Horsham Theatre.

The first film screened was Stanley Kubrick's Cold War comedy, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, accompanied by the short film, Home Made Cars.

President Janet Heard said the society was created as an outlet for people to discuss issues of the era.

"Around that time, there were a lot of professionals who came to town and they were very free-thinking. They loved to discuss what was happening in politics and the issues of the time," she said.

"The films they used to show were far more political and controversial from what we show now. A lot of the founding members were teachers and scientists (from the Victorian Wheat Research Institute), and they formed a lot of the drive to get it going.

"It probably only changed when we went from film to digital, and moving into the Horsham Centre Cinemas in the late 1980s. The membership grew and it had a subtle change in what was shown.

"There became an ever-increasing blur between what were arthouse films and what were mainstream films. Films that would have only been shown in an arthouse setting were now being shown everywhere.

"It changed because the world became more globalised and socialised - those discussion on political issues are now made on social media."

Related: Horsham Film Society celebrates 50 years

The society now has about 100 members, who travel from towns such as Warracknabeal, Halls Gap and Dimboola for screenings. She said there were a number of reasons why people joined the society.

"I think people are very interested in the actual film appreciation itself, then it is also a way of looking into other cultures and lives. Then of course there is the social aspect of it," she said.

"People also come to be challenged, too. Some of the films are very challenging - you leave really thinking about things."

The vast majority of films the society screens are foreign language films.

"We have mixed reactions to the subtitled film - people either love or hate them. You get to see what life really is; there aren't many mainstream movies that look at something in depth," she said.

The society committee chooses films by looking at critical reviews, film festivals and awards. The films screened have to be recently released and not shown at Horsham Centre Cinemas.

"It's quite a passionate process. We could have a list of 50 films, then we narrow it down and vote. We submit the list to Horsham Centre Cinemas manager Andrea Marshall and she works with the distributors," she said.

Mrs Heard has been a member since 1993 and still vividly remembers the first film she watched with the society - Jane Campion's multi-Academy Award winning drama, The Piano.

"I remember it was very early on in its release when we saw it. It was huge. The cinema was so packed that there could have even been people standing in the aisle," she said.

She said she joined the group for a number of reasons.

"One of the reasons I decided to join was kind of a lazy reason really. I was part of a book club and I was back working full time, so I just didn't have the time to read as much," she said.

"It was so easy to just watch a movie instead. I love book club and always loved reading books that I normally wouldn't read - and it's the same with movies, too.

"I also live at Tooan, so it was really nice to come to Horsham and socialise with a different group of people. Plus I just have always loved going to the cinema. I can't imagine not going every month - I very rarely miss it."

Mrs Heard said she had seen many memorable films as part of the society.

"The one that really sticks in my mind was the Iranian film Children of Heaven. It's about a little boy who accidentally loses the only pair of shoes his little sister owns. He then tries to earn money to buy another pair. It's the sweetest film and everybody left that movie moved," she said.

"We've had some absolutely fantastic documentaries, too. There was one called ​The Salt of the Earth which was about the photographer Sebastião Salgado which was fascinating."

Horsham Film Society's first meeting for 2019 will be a screening of the Israeli comedy Wajib. The screening is at Horsham Centre Cinemas on February 25 from 6.30pm.

"We always try to start with a comedy and it should be a lot of fun," she said.

Another highlight of the 2019 program is the Japanese drama The Shoplifters, which won the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year and is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Academy Awards.

Other films include the Academy Award winning romance, Call Me By Your Name; the politically charged satirical comedy The Death of Stalin; and the Israeli film Foxtrot, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

The season will close on November 25 with a screening of the BAFTA award winning drama I Am Not A Witch.

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