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 International Festival of Documentary Films, a programme of documentaries, was presented by the Edinburgh Film Guild alongside the 1947 Edinburgh International Festival.[4] Key figures in this initiative were the Guild's Norman Wilson and the film journalist and wartime civil servant, Forsyth Hardy.[5] At the time, Cannes and Venice were the most significant annual film festivals. Over the subsequent years, the programme expanded to include fiction films and experimental work in addition to documentaries.
Murray Grigor was appointed director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1967.[5]Linda Myles was director of the Festival from 1973 to 1980,[6] initiating a number of reappraisals and new viewpoints, notably "The Women's Event" organised by Myles, Claire Johnston and Laura Mulvey at the 1972 Festival.[7]
In 2008, the film festival moved from its traditional August slot to June.[8]
In past editions, a number of awards were developed by the festival. These included The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film (selected by a jury), the Audience Award, and the Best International Feature Award (selected by a panel of judges). There were previously several awards given for short films.
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.[13]
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.[14] The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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.[15] 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.”[16]
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.[17]
In July 2023, Screen Scotland facilitated the recruitment of Chairperson Andrew Macdonald to lead the establishment of a new company to run the festival.[18]
In November 2023, Paul Ridd, a long-term acquisitions executive at Picturehouse Cinemas, was named as the new Director of the festival.[19]
In January 2024, it was announced that the festival would return from 15–21 August 2024.[20]
Spanning 7 days, the relaunched festival is set to honour 70+ years of festival history, showcasing the very best talent in filmmaking in a re-energised format that is rooted in a local Scottish context whilst embracing the international diversity of creative expression.
The festival is poised to accelerate the discovery of new talent through the inauguration of two major competitions, The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence and a competition for Shorts, with significant prize-money awarded to the filmmakers.[22]
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.[23] In 1958, it acquired its own base at 3 Randolph Crescent, a Georgian town house with its own cinema.[24] 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
Sir Thomas Sean Connery was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Connery originated the role in Dr. No (1962) and continued starring as Bond in the Eon Productions films From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Connery made his final appearance in the franchise in Never Say Never Again (1983), a non-Eon-produced Bond film.
William Norman McLaren, LL. D. was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films.
Jason Joseph Connery is an Italian-born British actor and director. He is the son of Sean Connery and Diane Cilento. On screen, he is best known for appearing in the third series of the ITV drama series Robin of Sherwood in 1986. He took over the main role after Michael Praed's character was killed off at the end of the second series.
The Skinny is a monthly free magazine distributed in venues throughout the cities of Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. Founded in 2005, the magazine features interviews and articles on music, art, film, comedy and other aspects of culture across Scotland and beyond.
The Cameo is a cinema in Tollcross, Edinburgh, Scotland, originally named the King's Cinema. It opened on 8 January 1914, making it one of the oldest cinemas in Scotland still in use. Since becoming the Cameo in 1949 it has had a tradition of showing art house films, becoming an important venue for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Since 1992 it has had three screens. The Cameo was independent until 2003, when it was bought by Cineworld's Picturehouse chain.
There are several types of mass media in Scotland: television, cinema, radio, newspapers, magazines, game design and websites. The majority of Scotland's media is located in Glasgow, the countries largest city, which serves as the HQ for much of the countries major media employers such as broadcasters BBC Scotland and STV, radio services including BBC Radio Scotland, Clyde 1 and Pure Radio Scotland. Game design and production company, Rockstar North, has its international offices in the countries capital city, Edinburgh.
The Screen Academy Scotland is a collaboration between Edinburgh Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art. It was opened in August 2005 by the then First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Both Edinburgh Napier and ECA had already established film making courses. Napier's combined photography and film undergraduate BA launched Cannes prizewinner Lynne Ramsay on her journey to film directing. The Academy offers practical, project-based, postgraduate courses. A new Production Centre was opened in August 2006 by Napier Honorary Graduate Tilda Swinton. The Academy's first Director is Robin MacPherson FRSA, a BAFTA-nominated producer and formerly Development Executive for Scottish Screen, now Professor of Screen Media at Edinburgh Napier University, where he is also Director of its Institute for Creative Industries and a board member of Creative Scotland.
Saxon is a 2007 independent British film.
Scotland has produced many films, directors and actors.
Africa in Motion (AiM) is an annual African film festival which takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland, in late October/early November. The primary aim of the festival is to offer audiences in Scotland the opportunity to view the best of African cinema from across the continent. AiM 2021 will be the 16th edition showcasing African cinema, the main hosting venue being Edinburgh's Filmhouse Cinema. The festival was founded in 2006 by Lizelle Bisschoff, a South African researcher based in the UK.
The Edinburgh Film Guild (EFG) is a film society based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1929, it is notable as the oldest continuously running film society in the world.
Mark Cousins is an English-born, Northern Irish director and writer. A prolific documentarian, among his best-known works is the 15-hour 2011 documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey.
Scotland Loves Animation is a charity that promotes anime in Scotland. They hold an annual film festival called "Scotland Loves Anime" in October and work with other festivals to programme anime content into their schedules. It will celebrate its 15th festival in 2024, which will take place between the 1 and 10 November 2024.
Shehzad Afzal is a Scottish writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer and game designer born in Dundee .
The Edinburgh Filmhouse is a cinema located in Edinburgh, Scotland, which opened in 1979. It was home to the world's oldest continually running film festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival. The cinema closed in October 2022 when its parent body went into administration. As of September 2023, a campaign organised by former staff is underway to reopen Filmhouse.
Graham Fitzpatrick is a Scottish film director and screenwriter.
Tommy's Honour is a 2016 historical drama film depicting the lives and careers of, and the complex relationship between, the pioneering Scottish golfing champions Old Tom Morris and his son Young Tom Morris. The film is directed by Jason Connery, and the father and son are portrayed by Peter Mullan and Jack Lowden. The film won Best Feature Film at the 2016 British Academy Scotland Awards.
Big Gold Dream is a 2015 film documenting the story of Scotland's post-punk scene, focusing on record labels Fast Product and Postcard Records. Directed by filmmaker Grant McPhee, the film's name is taken from the 1981 Fire Engines single of the same name, the final release on the Pop Aural label.
Tartan Features is a filmmaking network and distribution platform based in Scotland. It supports the production of micro-budget feature films.
The Space Between is an Edinburgh love story and redemption tale, produced by Lyre Productions. Filmed over 17 days in Edinburgh, for only £15,000, it was written & directed by Tim Barrow, and stars Barrow, Vivien Reid, and David Whitney.
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
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
