Movie festival in Scotland
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.
History
The International Festival of Documentary Films, a programme of documentaries, was presented by the Edinburgh Film Guild alongside the 1947 Edinburgh International Festival.[4] 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.
Linda Myles was director of the Festival from 1973-80,[5] 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.[6]
In 2008, the film festival moved from its traditional August slot to June.[7]
The film festival shows a range of feature-length films and documentaries as well as short films, animations and music videos. A jury awards The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film while the audience can vote for the Audience Award, and a panel of judges adjudicates the Best International Feature Award. There are also several awards given for short films.
The artistic director from September 2006 to 2010 was Hannah McGill, previously a film critic and cinema columnist for The Herald newspaper.[8] Her predecessor, Shane Danielsen, served from 2002 to 2006.[9] Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle and Seamus McGarvey are honorary patrons.[10] In December 2009, Hannah McGill collected the prestigious Talkback Thames New Talent Award at the Women in Film and Television Awards.[11]
Following McGill's departure, a new format was announced with no artistic director and a series of guest curators led by producer James Mullighan.[12]
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 after heading five editions in late 2019.[13] 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.[14] 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.”[15]
In March 2023, it was announced that the festival would return in a special one-year iteration as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, with the support of the Edinburgh International Festival in Screen Scotland. The 2023 programme will be led by EIFF’s new 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.[16]
