The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival.[1][2][3] EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, International, European, UK or Scottish Premieres), in all genres and lengths. It also presents themed retrospectives and other specialized programming strands.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) originated as the International Festival of Documentary Films and was opened by John Grierson, founder of the British documentary movement. [4] The International Festival of Documentary Films was presented by the Edinburgh Film Guild alongside the 1947 Edinburgh International Festival.[5] Key figures in this initiative were the Guild's Norman Wilson and the film journalist and wartime civil servant, Forsyth Hardy.[6] The second Festival, in 1948, opened with Robert J. Flaherty'sLouisiana Story. In 1949, The Festival planned to screen the double Academy Award winner Bicycle Thieves as the highlight of the third Festival but the film was given UK distribution and the distributors pulled it from the Festival. [7]
1952 marked a shift from documentary programming and the festival included Le Plaisir and Death of a Salesman, and the Duke of Edinburgh attended the opening of this sixth Festival. [8] The Festival was expanded in 1954 and showcased films and events at the Cameo cinema and other cinemas around Edinburgh, and John Huston also agreed to serve as Honorary President. [9]
1960s and 1970s
The late Sixties saw Hollywood films showcased, mainly from independent studios, for example AIP. Film critic John Russell, reviewed these changes for the London Times and wrote: [10]
Last year the Edinburgh Film Festival was radically remade: out with drably conservative features and solid documentary, in with Roger Corman, international underground and the young idea. The idea was not only young, but good. By choosing to lay the festival’s main accent on specialist weeks devoted to a particular country or school and on retrospectives of the sort of film-maker rarely so honoured over here, the organizers immediately gave it a new twist, and removed it from the regular rat race, in which too many festivals chase too few films of any real merit
—John Taylor Russell, Edinburgh Goes Pop, The Times (23 August, 1969)
Director Murray Grigor recruited two undergraduates at University of Edinburgh, Lynda Myles and David Will, who had written an article published in The Scotsman criticising the Festival's programming as conservative. Wills and Myles were credited bringing influence from French film theory and American cinema. [11] They worked with British theorist and filmmaker Peter Wollen and introduced film retrospectives, educational and publishing events to the festival. Peter Stanfield writes that this changed the festival saying "as of 1968-69 the Festival was no longer a purveyor of middlebrow film fare; from the onwards it would assume an innovative, oppositional face, offering a platform for cultish directors and a window for some of the most exciting developments in international filmmaking." [11] The EIFF was funded by grants from the Scottish Film Council and Edinburgh Cooperation and, at the time, had no industry sponsorship.
In 1970 the Festival continued to show international films from Eastern and Western Europe including The Rain People and Five Easy Pieces. Cult films were also screened including the work of Monte Hellman, whose work the EIFF called "self-conscious" and "schematic" in the 1970 programme. [12] In 1975, the EIFF showcased the work of Jonathan Demme, screening The Hot Box, Caged Heat and Crazy Mama because "Demme sought to subvert the traditional conservative values of the genre! (written in the EIFF 1975 programme). [13] However, the decision of the EIFF to screen exploitation films was met with criticism and local magistrates responsible for passing films as suitable for public screening took offence to the violence in Bloody Mama, for example, and allowed it only one screening. [11]
The EIFF, under the guidance of Lynda Myles, Laura Mulvey and Claire Johnston, championed the screening of female directors and was the first of its kind in Europe to screen a variety of different films showcasing the lives, histories and work of women. This was known as "The Women's Event" organised by Myles, Johnston and Mulvey at the 1972 Festival.[14]
Director Jim Hickey took over the Festival in 1981 and inherited a financial deficit, meaning his budget was £31,000 instead of the £75,000 the previous year, and the 1981 Festival was to run for nine days instead of a fortnight. [16] Hickey decided that he would screen Abel Gance's five-hour long film Napoleon, and this was shown as the 1981 Festival's closing performance to drum up interest and publicity.
Edinburgh Filmhouse
The Edinburgh Filmhouse was under reconstruction and when opened, the main auditorium would make a 285 seating capacity venue available for the EIFF. On the 15th February 1982, the main auditorium was opened to the public. The Filmhouse and the EIFF were financially linked for administration purposes, and the Scottish Film Council said it could not bail out the Filmhouse and that other sources of financial aid would need to be found.
The 1982 Festival opening film was E.T. The Extra Terrestrial screening at the Playhouse. [17] The first week of this Festival also included the Scotch Reels event in which there were discussions and screenings of Scottish films, and the programmes were selected by Colin McArthur, who also convened the organising group. This event, discussing Scottish film, continued at the 1983 Festival but was renamed New Images of Scotland. [16]
The 1984 Festival opened with the premiere of the film Comfort and Joy screened at The Playhouse. The EIFF executive was now made up of Professor Colin Young as Chairman, Murray Grigor as Vice-Chair, Film, Jane Cousins, Vice-Chair, Television, and others. Jim Hickey remained Director of the Festival, as well as director of the Filmhouse. [16] Financial negotiations for the Filmhouse development were ongoing and the Duke of Edinburgh agreed to open the completed Filmhouse in July 1985. [18]
The 1986 Festival marked the EIFF's 40th anniversary and the Scottish Television produced a film Hooray for Holyrood which included archival footage and interviews from those who had been associated with the EIFF. [19] The main event at this Festival was a three-day conference on Cultural Theories and Practices associated with the Notion of a Third World Cinema, organised in association with the British Film Institute. [16]
In 1988, the financial situation regarding the co-administration of the EIFF and the Filmhouse was ongoing and an outcome was eventually reached. The two bodies would separate by the end of the year but each would share the debt of both organisations. Being separate organisations required separate administration and therefore different directors. [20] Jim Hickey was made Chairman of the Filmhouse, John Crichton remained Director of the Filmhouse. David Robinson was appointed Director of the EIFF, and Colin Young remained the Festival's chairman. Robinson explained, in an interview with The Times, that his aim was "the promotion of young film-makers and new talents." [citation needed] In a change with tradition, Robinson hosted prizes and competitions including the Charles Chaplin New Directors Award and the Young Film-maker of the Year prize offered by the BBC and Virgin at the 1989 Festival. [21]
1990-2020
Robinson introduced two new awards for the 1990 Festival; a prize for the best animated film financed by the Post Office and the Michael Powell Prize for the best British film of the year sponsored by BAFTA/Shell. There was also a return to hosting a Celebrity Lecture, which has been initiated by Orson Welles in 1953, and David Puttnam spoke at the Cameo. [22]
At the 1991 Festival it was announced that Sean Connery would become Patron of the EIFF and he attended the closing performance of that year's Festival with his wife at the Cameo. [23] Changes to the EIFF's administration were also made, including Murray Grigor becoming chairman of the festival, succeeding Colin Young who became chairman of the Edinburgh International Film and Television Festivals Council. [16]
In the spring of 1992, Penny Thompson took on the role of Director of the EIFF and she stated in an interview that her aim was to combine "a bit of analysis with a bit of fun." [24] Thompson introduced a new award for European Script Writing.
The 60th Festival in 2006 saw American actress Sigourney Weaver attend and receive the first EIFF Diamond Award for outstanding contribution to world cinema. [29] In 2010, Patrick Stewart chaired the Michael Powell Award Jury and attended an In Person: BAFTA Scotland interview. [30]
Following McGill's departure, a new format was announced in December 2010 with no artistic director and a series of guest curators led by producer James Mullighan.[31] The Festival returned to a more conventional format in 2012 under artistic director Chris Fujiwara, who stepped down in 2014.
In 2014, the film critic/programmer Mark Adams – who had been Chief Film Critic for Screen International; Director of Cinema at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), and Head of Programme Planning at the National Film Theatre – took over as Artistic Director. He decided to step down in late 2019 after heading five editions.[32] The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The EIFF today
As of June 2021, the festival board introduced its newest creative director, Kristy Matheson, who formerly served as Director of Film at Australia's national museum of screen culture, ACMI.
In October 2022, the festival's organiser, the Centre for the Moving Image, went into administration.[33] The festival’s main venue, Edinburgh’s celebrated Filmhouse cinema, also closed in 2022. CMI released a statement explaining that: “The charity is facing the perfect storm of sharply rising costs, in particular energy costs, alongside reduced trade due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. The combination and scale of these challenges is unprecedented and means that there was no option but to take immediate action.”[34]
In March 2023, it was announced that the festival would return in a special one-year iteration as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, running from 18–23 August 2024. Screen Scotland also supported the festival, who took on the festival brand after the administration of the Centre for the Moving Image. The 2023 programme was led by Programme Director Kate Taylor, with Kristy Matheson leaving the role. Details of the programme, which included 36 features films, of which 24 were new, were published in July 2023.[35]
In July 2023, Screen Scotland facilitated the recruitment of Chairperson Andrew Macdonald to lead the establishment of a new company to run the festival.[36]
In November 2023, Paul Ridd, a long-term acquisitions executive at Picturehouse Cinemas, was named as the new Director of the festival.[37]
In January 2024, it was announced that the festival would return from 15–21 August 2024.[38]
Films
Notable screenings
The first films shown at The International Festival of Documentary Films were The Cumberland Story, The Seventh Age and The Festival of Youth. The closing film for the Festival was Roberto Rosellini'sPaisa, six documentary episodes about the liberation of Italy at the end of the Second World War. The second Festival in 1948 opened with Louisiana Story. In 1949, the Festival opened with a screening of Berliner Ballade and closed with Jour de Fete. The EIFF shifted from only screening documentaries and in 1950 opened with The Wooden Horse. In 1951, the EIFF screened The Man in The White Suit as the opening film, a sci-fi comedy. Gene Kelly opened the 1956 Festival with a screening of his film Invitation to Dance, and the same Festival also introduced the work of Satyajit Ray with a screening of Pather Pancahli. The 1957 Festival introduced the first Midnight Matinee and screened A Face in the Crowd at 11.30pm at the Regal cinema. The 1958 Festival was opened with a screening of Wild Strawberries and a popular film at this Festival was Roman Polanski'sTwo Men and a Wardrobe. Bert Haanstra's first feature film Fanfare opened the 1959 Festival.
The 2021 Festival premiered Annette, and screened a special preview of Everybody's Talking about Jamie. PIG opened the Festival and premiered Here Today as the closing film. The 75th EIFF in 2022 opened with a screening of Aftersun and closed with After Yang. The 2023 Festival presented a Retrospective screening of Shane Meadow'sDead Men's Shoes. The Festival also screened Choose Irvine Welsh and Fremont as the closing films.
People
Direction
The current Director of the EIFF is Paul Ridd who was appointed in 2024. [39] Below is a list of previous directors:
The EIFF accepts submissions of short films (30 minutes or less runtime) and feature films (over 31 minutes runtime), and each incurs a submission fee for entry. [43] Submissions normally open in the January of a year and the deadline will be the April of the same year, with the Festival taking place that August.
Festival programme
As of 2024 the festival is composed of different sections including: [44]
Feature Films: screenings of feature-length films both in and out of competition for several prizes
World Premiers: screenings of a number of world premiers for films, some of which compete for the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence
Retrospectives: dedicated to screening a selection of films from a specific filmmaker, genre or narrative, For example, the 2024 Retrospective was screenings of the work of Brian De Palma
Short Films: screenings of short-films both in and out of competition for several prizes
In Conversation: an in-depth interview with a filmmaker discussing their career. For example, the 2024 In Conversation was with Gaspar Noe
Midnight Madness: screenings of the best of genre cinema
Lynda Myles Celebrates: a new screening showcase for 2024 for visionary new work of cinema in the memory of former EIFF director Lynda Myles
Venues
During the festival's early years, screenings took place at various cinemas and other venues across the city, including the New Victoria in Clerk Street, the Playhouse in Leith Walk, the Odeon in Lothian Road and the Central Hall, Tollcross.[45] In 1958, it acquired its own base at 3 Randolph Crescent, a Georgian town house with its own cinema.[46] In 1979, it moved to the Edinburgh Filmhouse, which remained its base until its closure in 2022. Other recent venues have included Fountainpark Cineworld, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, and the VUE Cinema at the Omni Centre.
EIFF Awards (historic and present)
The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film, with a £20,000 cash prize
The Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film
The Award for Best International Feature Film, with a £10,000 cash prize
The Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, with a £10,000 cash prize
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1 2 3 4 5 Hardy, Forsyth (1992). Slightly mad and full of dangers: The story of the Edinburgh Film Festival; 46: 15.-30.08.1992. Edinburgh: Ramsay Head Press. ISBN978-1-873921-01-2.
↑ Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh. (2 July 1985). Opening of the Filmhouse by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh [Souvenir brochure]. Moving Image Archive Manuscript Catalogue, MI.1/7/13. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
Hardy, Forsyth (1992), Slightly Mad and Full of Dangers: The Story of the Edinburgh Film Festival, Ramsay Head Press, Edinburgh, ISBN9781873921012
McArthur, Colin (1990), "The Rises and Falls of the Edinburgh International Film Festival", in Dick, Eddie (ed.), From Limelight to Satellite: A Scottish Film Book, British Film Institute / Scottish Film Council, pp. 91 - 102, ISBN978-0851702810
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