IT is the film of the moment and actress Emily Watson will be in Bridport to introduce The Theory of Everything at the From Page to Screen festival in April.

The festival is the UK’s only film festival dedicated to the adaptation of books into films.

Emily will be talking on Saturday April 11 ahead of a screening of the Oscar-winning film, which documents the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking’s battle against motor neurone disease and his relationship with his wife Jane Wilde.

Emily Watson plays Jane’s mother in the film, which stars Eddie Redmayne as Professor Hawking and Felicity Jones as Jane. The film is based on Hawking’s bestseller ``A Brief History of Time’’, which has sold millions of copies world-wide.

Laura Cockett, director of Bridport Arts Centre, said: ``We are looking forward to welcoming Emily to From Page to Screen and talking to her about her incredible career and the extraordinary and uplifting story of one of the world's greatest living minds.’’

Emily Watson was Oscar-nominated for her first film Breaking The Waves, having got her first big break when she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1990s.

She has starred in movies such as Hilary and Jackie – for which she received her second Oscar nomination – and silence of the lambs prequel Red Dragon. Watson has appeared in films as diverse as Angela’s Ashes, Gosford Park and Warhorse and The Book Thief.

There is a strong female line-up at this year’s From Page to Screen. Watson joins Dame Harriet Walter, best known for her work in the theatre, who will talk ahead of a screening of Suite Française, an upcoming romantic World War II drama film directed by Saul Dibb and co-written with Matt Charman.

She plays Vicountess de Montmort. The film is based on Irene Nemirovsky’s 2004 novel of the same name, starring Michelle Williams and Kristen Scott Thomas and centres on a romance between a French villager and a German soldier during the early years of the German occupation of France.

Harriet Walters has also chosen her favourite adaptation, John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant's Woman, which was filmed in Lyme Regis, to be screened at the festival.

From Page To Screen also welcomes best-selling author Deborah Moggach, who will be talking ahead of a screening of upcoming British comedy-drama film The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. This is a sequel to the hugely successful The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, adapted from Deborah's novel These Foolish Things.

The original feature film followed the attempts by retirees to enlighten themselves in India at an allegedly `luxurious’ hotel. Familiar faces including Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Judi Dench and Dev Patel will return to the film along with new hotel guest Richard Gere.

Deborah will also run a workshop connected to the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice, for which she wrote the screenplay.