Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014: The Eight Week Countdown

In just under eight weeks time, the red carpet will be rolled out to welcome the return of the 68th Edinburgh’s International Film Festival. As usual, we will be expecting film stars and filmmakers from all across the globe, as well as journalists and media moguls to descend on the capital in a ten day celebration of international cinema.

At this point, very little is still known about the festival’s 2014 edition, as it is shrouded in secrecy until the big reveal on May 28th.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we know so far:

Fujiwara’s Back!
Approaching his third year as EIFF’s Artistic Director, Chris Fujiwara has been undoubtedly watching an absolute ton of cinema, finding and selecting the best and most appropriate for this year’s festival. Fujiwara seems to have settled into his  Artistic Director chair perfectly; having done a fine job the past few years.

German Focus
Every year, the festival chooses two countries in which they search for the best of the country’s contemporary and historic cinema. This year, Germany gets its moment! Writing on his blog for EIFF, Fujiwara mentioned that the festival will present a “deeper and wider view” of German cinema in both new and retrospective strands.

Iranian Focus
The limelight also falls on Iran this year. Focusing on the films made before the 1979 Islamic revolution as well as the new crop of fresh Iranian filmmakers, the strand promises to deliver a series of films from a country notoriously hard to source features from internationally. Fujiwara writes that the hope is to provoke a discussion between the differences and similarities of pre-1979 Iranian cinema, and the work of the country’s contemporaries.

Student Critics Jury Will Be Returning
Recently, the festival has invited submissions from the country’s budding film critics to join the Student Critics Jury. If you’re in higher education and have a love for film and film critique, you can submit your piece over on the EIFF website. You never know, you might be sitting amongst the big leagues come June, awarding the Student Critics Jury prize to an elated filmmaker!

The Festival’s 2014 Look
Whilst everyone is busy behind the scenes, the design team has released the look for 2014’s festival. Adopting a colourful, gum paper man style for the posters and programme cover. They certainly never disappoint!

It’s Not All for Adults! The festival has always taken pride in its all encompassing attitude towards films. This year would seem to be no different as applications were posted for the festival’s youth strand earlier in the year. Last year’s strand, known as Not Another Teen Movie was a great success. Aimed at young people aged 15-25, it welcomed short and feature films across Europe and the world. If the Young Programming team’s keen eye from last year has been carried over, we should expect another great selection of films for a more youthful audience!

All will be revealed in full detail on May 28th during the festival’s programme launch. For more details, follow @edfilmfest on Twitter or visit the Edinburgh Film Festival website.