Lost in Translation won an Oscar for best screenplay in 2004

In the process it will become the UK's largest free film channel, available to 18m homes, the broadcaster says.

Around one-quarter of the films shown on the channel will come from the UK, but they will be broken up with advertisements for the first time.

Launched in 1998, the service has around 300,000 subscribers.

Currently branded as FilmFour, it has only been available to cable and satellite viewers. Its new look will see it join the Freeview service.

The decision to make the channel free-to-air comes a year after Channel 4 made a similar move with E4, which resulted in a large increase in viewing figures.

The newly relaunched channel will screen six films a day, many of which will be produced by Channel 4's film division, FilmFour Productions.

These include the Ray Winstone film Sexy Beast and Che Guevara biopic The Motorcycle Diaries.

The production division, which scored successes with Trainspotting and Four Weddings and a Funeral, was closed as an independent company in 2002 after a series of high-profile flops.

However, Channel 4's director of TV, Kevin Lygo, said it is hoped that making Film4 more widely available "will help maintain and protect Channel 4's stake in British film".