MURWILLUMBAH'S Regent Cinema will, for the first time, feature in this year's Byron Bay International Film Festival.

The achievement will be added to the historic cinema's new cafe, balcony, entrance foyer and recent switch from 35mm film to digital technology.

Its involvement in the 2012 BBFF has indeed come about as a result of what festival director J'aimee Skippon-Volke said were "brave and gutsy" steps to reconnect with its film-loving community.

She said she was "delighted" to add the Regent to the program.

"Their audience will notice a huge difference in quality with the new digital format, and with digital in place we can now expand our venue program to include them.

"This spreads the reach of the film festival into the Tweed, and even the Gold Coast.

"This means less driving and more great films for an ever growing audience."

The festival is now in its sixth year after starting with a small number of screenings at the Byron Bay Community Centre.

2011 saw it expand to Birch Carroll and Coyle Lismore.

This year both the Regent and Byron's art-house cinema Pighouse Flicks have expanded the festival.

Four screenings including the acclaimed Crazy Wisdom will be featured at Murwillumbah during March.

Crazy Wisdom is a feature length documentary on Chogyam Trungpa, the brilliant "bad boy" Tibetan monk who escaped the Communist invasion of Tibet, and broke all the rules to bring Buddhism to the West.

Visit bbff.com.au for more information.