“I hope that in the future we will be seen as a kind of destination festival,” Paul Ridd tells us of his long-term goal for the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), as he steps away from his desk for a short break. He’s speaking from his home in the Scottish capital, and we’re just days away from his first edition as festival director.
Central to his plan is a revision of the festival’s competition lines, which now feature names of local and global film icons and strictly world premiere titles. There is also a hefty cash prize.
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“You come here because of the power of our curation and competitions,” says Ridd.
Another important piece of its puzzle is the festival’s engagement with the industry through a special side menu that specifically focuses on the industry. This year, the event will once again be held on the first weekend of the festival, from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th August.
“We want to be a place where people not only get their films selected, but where the press and the industry come and get something out of it that’s useful,” Ridd continues.
“That’s the feeling of a destination festival.”
The centerpiece of this year’s industry sidebar will be an on-stage Q&A between filmmakers Alex Garland and Chairman of the Edinburgh Film Festival Andrew MacDonald. Macdonald, best known as the pioneering local producer behind Train spotting, has collaborated with Garland for decades on titles such as The beach (2000), 28 days later (2002), Ex-machine (2014), and their recent box office success Civil warThe duo will discuss their careers and collaborations on stage at Edinburgh’s Tollcross Central Hall, a 750-seat venue that will host the festival’s main Q&A sessions.
“I think our delegates will learn a lot from that conversation. One of the reasons we wanted to bring Andrew in is because we wanted to focus on the industry,” Ridd says of the headline gig.
“Andrew is a very established producer who has made things like Train spotting. But after working so closely with Alex for so many years, I think it will open up a conversation not just about the content of the films, but about the production, the collaboration and all the things that are central to our ideas.”
Ridd says it was “hard to pin down Garland,” who is an enigma among contemporary filmmakers. 28 days later The writer has no verifiable online presence (even Martin Scorsese is on Instagram) and is rarely seen at festivals, despite directing four films in the past decade.
“It was a last minute thing to get him,” Ridd says. “His schedule is crazy, he’s working on 28 Days Later and the other movie he’s co-directing.”
Garland co-directs Warfarea closely guarded A24 project, starring Ray Mendoza. The film stars Noah Centineo, Taylor John Smith, Adain Bradley, Michael Gandolfini, Henrique Zaga and Evan Holtzman.
Other key Q&A sessions include conversations with Thelma Schoonmaker and Gaspar Noé. The duo will also present films to the EIFF audience. Noé will host a screening of Dario Argento’s Tired while Cleaner will introduce Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s I know where I’m going!
The rest of the industry section is filled with topic-focused panels such as Scraper to screena case study on the development and distribution of the 2023 hit film ScraperMelanie Iredale from equality charity Reclaim the Frame will moderate the session. Panellists include the film’s director Charlotte Regan, Eva Yates (Director of BBC Film) and Julia Trawinska (Acquisitions Manager at Picturehouse Entertainment). New Edinburgh TV Festival Director Rowan Woods will moderate Stand in front of the screena panel featuring filmmakers who have made the transition from live performance and TV to filmmaking. Alex Walton, Co-Head at WME Independent, will be on the panel with producer Afolabi Kuti. But who will be there?
“We have a really good and diverse range of people coming through, from emerging producers and filmmakers to established executives from Scotland, the UK and beyond,” says Ridd.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the number of people from very different backgrounds. I think it will also make for some very interesting networking sessions.”
In addition to its presence in the contemporary industry, EIFF has always maintained a strong relationship with the Academy, through its engagement and involvement in film theory and philosophy. This tradition will continue this year on the penultimate industry day with a tribute to Lynda Myles. Myles will receive the BAFTA Scotland Outstanding Contribution to Film Award at a dinner hosted by the festival.
Myles, a producer, writer, curator and critic, was the first woman to direct a major European film festival when she headed EIFF from 1973 to 1980. Her tenure is best known for her inspired programming that popularized in-depth retrospectives of Hollywood directors such as Douglas Sirk and Raoul Walsh, placing them alongside the contemporary American and European avant-garde. An early advocate for female filmmakers, Myles created a series of debates and screenings at EIFF in 1972 called The Women’s Event, focusing entirely on the work of women filmmakers. She left Edinburgh in 1980 for the University of California, Berkeley, and soon after became a producer with credits including The commitments And Kill me softly.
“We loved the idea of continuity between the old and the new. And Lynda was such an important figure in the history of the festival in the 1970s,” Ridd says of the tribute.
In addition to a series of networking cocktails and the festival’s now famous cèilidh, the festival will close with a new feature: a film quiz hosted by radio presenter and critic Ali Plumb.
“I love that we can create an exciting place where people can discover new work, find talent and network, but also have fun,” says Ridd. “And what’s a film event without a film quiz? We’re all nerds anyway.”
The Edinburgh Film Festival takes place from 15 to 21 August.
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