The programme for the 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) (13-19 August) has been published.
The EIFF launched the full list of films in this year’s festival on Wednesday afternoon at Filmhouse and tickets are available now.
As ever, it’s an exciting line-up of all manner of weird and wonderful new (and old) features both Scottish and international, taking place over a range of venues including the steadfast Cameo Picturehouse, the rejuvenated Filmhouse and Cineworld Fountainbridge.
Even Leith Theatre is getting involved this year as it welcomes the cast and crew of the Scottish classic Trainspotting, which (if you can believe it) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Seeing the film in gorgeous 4K complete with a 90s-accurate accompanying club night with Irvine Welsh himself as the DJ will surely remind us that whatever Renton might think, it’s rather good to be Scottish. Unless, of course, you’re following the World Cup…
Tucked among a sea of felted red chairs in the Filmhouse itself, I spoke to EIFF CEO and Festival Director, Paul Ridd, who alongside Festival Producer Emma Boa, has brought this line-up to life for us to enjoy next month.
Ridd said: “What we’re always looking to do with our selection is to present a broad and wide-ranging sort of presentation of global cinema. We receive thousands of submissions – we view hundreds of films outside of submissions as well. The idea is that with the 40 or so features that we have in competition and out of competition, as well as our Midnight Madness strand, as well as all the short selections that we have, we want to have as broad a range of films and to make every film count.”
His team’s ambitions really do seem to have paid off this year, with eye-catching offerings like the world premiere of Snapshot, a grainy, sepiatone found-footage feature documenting the disturbing fate of an all-female ghost hunting society in late 19th century London.
Her Private Hell is one to look out for, too, a claustrophobic dive into a neon-inflected dystopian city with a central performance fromCompanion star Sophie Thatcher that some have compared to Jack Nicholson’s intensely mad turn in The Shining. It split audiences at Cannes, but I can’t help but feel excited to delve into it nonetheless – either way, it promises to be memorable.
Elsewhere, Rhys Ifans stars in the world premiere of Capsized, Lindsay Ryan’s new feature where a family see their houseboat and their rapports well and truly upturned and brand new comedy Out There has Michael Sheen investigating UFOs in an idyllic Welsh village. A highlight from the festival’s Midnight Madness strand would surely be the world premiere of Hungry, which pits a group of tourists in the Louisiana Bayou against (you guessed it) a gigantic hippopotamus with an equally sizeable appetite. Rest assured, I’m already working on jokes for that write up…
With so much to choose from, it’s no wonder that Ridd couldn’t pick a clear winner to wholeheartedly recommend above the others. He replied: “That’s an absolutely impossible question. I would encourage everyone who comes to the festival to see absolutely everything and to make their way through that seven days of film and see everything as much as they can.” When I pressed him for a choice, though (I know…what am I like?) he was quick to recommend the UK premiere of I Want Your Sex, Director Gregg Araki’s new feature which sees a timid Cooper Hoffman kick off an intense S&M relationship with Olivia Wilde’s unabashed art gallery director.
The film (which also features appearances from Hamilton alum Daveed Diggs and apple/airport enthusiast Charli XCX) will screen alongside fifteen-minute short Lesbian Ditch Day to create what is probably the best-titled double bill in the entire festival. “If I had the opportunity to come and see that film,” added Ridd, “then I know I would have an absolutely amazing time.”
Last year’s festivities were dampened slightly when it was revealed that Succession actor Brian Cox would not be premiering his directorial debut, Glenrothan, at Edinburgh, opting instead for Toronto despite a government-funded Screen Scotland grant making up part of the film’s budget. He billed Glenrothan as a love letter to Scotland but didn’t see EIFF as a big enough platform for a world premiere. James McAvoy’s own debut in the director’s seat, California Schemin’, also debuted at Toronto in spite of similar Screen Scotland funding.
The Festival CEO remarked: “I have enormous respect for Brian Cox. He’s a legendary actor and a wonderful director. I politely disagree with his opinion about the opportunity that Edinburgh presents, and I think we’ve kind of evidenced that with all the world premieres we’ve had, both in competition and out of competition, and the kind of market opportunities that we present. But I think what we’re doing year on year is trying to really lean into that USP of being this unique festival opportunity right at the heart of the Fringe – at the heart of the most exciting arts festival in the world – and really kind of selling that idea, both to our audiences and to the industry, which is intricately linked, that this is an opportunity for films and filmmakers to really be brought into the world. So, yes, we’re absolutely committed to the idea that we are not only a curatorial but also a commercial opportunity for filmmakers and films.”
As always, the Festival endeavours to support not only existing filmmakers but new talent, with its two main prizes – The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence and The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence – offering £50,000 and £15,000 grants to their respective winners. This feels like a red-letter year for young filmmakers in particular, however, with Curry Barker making Obsession aged 26 and Kane Parsons giving A24 their biggest ever hit with Backrooms at the age of just 20. They’re surely the first in a new wave of young creatives, but given that we live in an extremely tough economic climate, but I suggested to Paul Ridd that it still feels like the trickiest time in decades to be a young filmmaker in search of your first big break.
Ridd replied: “First of all, the success of both Backrooms and Obsession is a great endorsement for completely original new voices, young filmmakers, but also films that have not emerged from kind of existing IP.
“They’re not franchise movies, so when we see the results of films like that, it’s hugely encouraging for the state of independent cinema and the state of cinema as a whole.
“I would say the opportunity that we present within our competitions and without our competitions for filmmakers to really kind of take off with the opportunity that they’re presented with to show their films for the first time to audiences is an amazing one, But we also have, you know, really significant industry coming to take part in our industry programme, in conversation events and talks, so we’re really trying to connect those films and filmmakers with those people and those decision makers who are going to help them get their films out beyond the kind of hermetically sealed world of film festivals.
“We always see our success as a festival as defined half by those seven days and making them as fantastic as they possibly can be, and half about what happens to our films and filmmakers after the Festival itself.
“For example, seven films from our competition last year of ten have secured UK or international distribution, which is a great bolster for those works, which don’t necessarily have obvious talent hooks, or they’re from first or second time or emerging filmmakers, so that’s a very encouraging sign that what we’re trying to do is it’s working.
“I think we are completely eyes open to the fact that it’s so difficult to get a film made, let alone seen. So, what small part we can play in that progress I think is very important, and it’s kind of what drives us forward.”
With young audiences flocking to these youthful stories – an awkward twenty-something’s crush moving all too far into unsettling territory and a 2010s internet myth brought to life in the unremarkable corner of a department store – Ridd and the team will surely want to bring some of that fervour to the Festival itself. While general attitudes would have you believe that film festivals are populated by an overwhelming majority of Gen X and the like, Ridd has already observed more and more young people coming to the festivities each year.
He said: “We’re three years into the relaunched, rebooted version of the film festival, so we’re still in the early days of kind of building what we are building, but what’s very encouraging when we see young audiences engaging not just with our film and films and our festival (you know, looking out the audience for things like last year a talk with Thelma Schoonmaker) and seeing how young the audience skews, and also seeing how popular platforms like Letterboxd have become. Seeing how popular our festival and the films in our festival are on Letterboxd is a really encouraging sign that there is an audience that understands how important and how brilliant it is to come and actually experience a film in the dark in a room collectively, and that’s really what we’re all about.”
(Letterboxd is a social network for film lovers to keep track of what they have watched, share reviews and also rate films.)
The EIFF CEO said: “It’s about highlighting that next generation, that new generation, so that generation of filmmakers exist within the range of our features. But it’s also a very crucial part of all the shorts programmes that we put together, so that could include competition, that includes the NFTS Scotland Sean Connery Lab films that we show, which are all made by young, amazing talent from Scotland. So, in terms of building that legacy and that future and future proofing film festivals as a vital space for films to be discovered and filmmakers to be discovered, I think we’re doing great things to forward that – to make it all about celebrating the future as much as it is about honouring the past.”
With so much going on in the city each August, this will be the first EIFF for a great many people. One could be forgiven for hearing the words ‘film festival’ and imagining a decadent room full of tuxedo-toting, champagne-chugging intelligentsia. Imagine the kind who simply won’t stand for anything less than a four-hour runtime and who feel that the whole medium really started to go downhill after that one rocket hit the moon in the face.
Ridd and the EIFF team are rightly challenging such preconceptions and ensuring that the Festival is as accessible as possible.
He concluded: “It’s all about looking at the programme as a whole, seeing all the films and filmmakers that we support, seeing some of the amazing talent in front of and behind the camera, and really getting stuck in. What we want to get away from is the notion that a festival needs to feel like a highfalutin’ thing that’s only accessible to people who’ve seen 5 million movies and are deeply embedded in their own cinephilia.
“There’s so much opportunity there, and we’re welcoming, and we’re supportive, and we’re also affordable, which I think is important.”
EIFF runs 13-19 August, with tickets available now: https://www.edfilmfest.org
Trainspotting is showing 14-15 August.
Snapshot is showing 15-18 August.
Her Private Hell is showing 16/18 August.
Capsized is showing 15-18 August.
Out There is showing 14-16/18 August.
I Want Your Sex is showing 17-19 August.
Further details and the full film programme are available on the EIFF website.
Watch the interview here:
