EXCLUSIVE: This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will be held in close collaboration with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Scottish capital’s historic performing arts event, in a wide-ranging new partnership confirmed today by the two organizations.
As part of the deal, Edinburgh’s film program will open alongside wider Fringe events, including theatre, music and comedy shows, using new venues across the city, including non-traditional cinema spaces in Summerhall and in the heart from Fringe. fingerprint.
This year, the Cameo Cinema run by Picturehouse on Home Street will be the cinematic hub of the film festival. This century-old cinema was one of the original EIFF venues and has hosted some of the festival’s biggest moments, including a lecture by Orson Welles in 1953.
The EIFF film list is also growing. Starting this year, the EIFF will be putting together a slate of out-of-competition films, which management says will include international premieres and UK premieres. The out-of-competition titles will be screened alongside what the EIFF describes as ten additional world premiere feature films competing for the Sean Connery Award for Film Excellence. Previously announced, the Sean Connery Prize comes with a cash prize of £50,000.
EIFF will also present a Midnight Madness series that will showcase international genre films during the festival’s late-night slots, and a new repertory series will screen restored masterpieces. The festival’s Short Film Competition will now feature a £15,000 cash prize and film screenings alongside what the festival describes as an “innovative short film programme”.
This year’s EIFF (August 15-21) will be the first under the direction of festival director Paul Ridd and festival producer Emma Boa, who were hired late last year. The pair have the support of the EIFF’s growing executive board, including board chairman Andrew Macdonald of DNA Films, best known as the producer of the Danny Boyle films. Railway place; Peter Rice, former president of Disney General Entertainment and president of 21st Century Fox; and Amy Jackson, producer of Charlotte Wells after the sun. The festival is supported by Screen Scotland.
“We are very excited about the possibilities of August in Edinburgh and the shape of our combined programming,” Ridd told Deadline of his decision to better link the film festival with Edinburgh’s broader Fringe events. “Our collaboration with Fringe will foster strong connections between audiences of diverse art forms. “We will harness the creative energy that is everywhere in the city, encouraging critics, tastemakers and especially the public to interact with each other and with everything on display.”
Ridd will join Edinburgh in December 2023 from his role as acquisitions director at Picturehouse. He will replace Kate Taylor, who quietly left the festival late last year after leading a smaller edition. During his time at Picturehouse, Ridd became widely known for producing critical and commercial hits, and some of his releases included works by Francis Lee. God’s countrycourtesy of Audrey Diwan Accidentcourtesy of Charlotte Reagan Bully, and more recently Oscar winner Justine Triet Anatomy of the fall. However, his Edinburgh tenure came after a prolonged period of turmoil at the festival, including a brief closure after its owner, the Center for the Moving Image, collapsed. CMI executives appointed administrators in October 2022. Below, Ridd explains more about his collaboration with Fringe and discusses how he and his team are working to attract top-tier films to the festival along with their long-term vision for the event.
DEADLINE: Paul, I visited EIFF last year and the only criticism a lot of people had was that they felt the festival was overshadowed by the Fringe. Why did you decide to bring those two events together?
PAUL Omits: August is a time of great creative expression in Edinburgh. But it was also a time when many artists, creatives and commissioners were in town looking for the next big thing. This is an advantage for us for what we are trying to do, both in terms of the films we schedule and the type of attention we want to see for those films, both on an audience and industry level. The way we see it, we can take advantage of that through our festivals and integrate it and insert it into the broader cultural sphere. As a result, our world premiere competition films can be played as fringe shows, aimed at new audiences and people looking for new talent.
DEADLINE: You mentioned the premiere title. Due to the festival calendar, Edinburgh is clearly in a difficult situation when it comes to attracting new films. Summer is usually a dead time for “festival films.” How do you approach filming a movie?
DRIVE: The way we present it to people is that we have the opportunity to give filmmakers the opportunity to release it in the fall period. We are very agnostic about the films we shoot. We search for movies from all over the world in any genre. We’re not looking for a specific type of film. We believe that Edinburgh is an excellent opportunity to launch a film, as we have a selected and specific program where all the films in our selection will be taken into account. Each film will have its moment to be presented to the public, the press and buyers. There is also a submission process that we have had open since mid-February, where we have received hundreds of films from all over the world. Then there was a feeling that people wanted to send us their films for consideration. Plus, frankly, they knew there was a chance to win a big prize donated by the Connery Foundation, which is an incredible tool to showcase filmmakers and producers.
DEADLINE: What kind of films will come out of the competition?
DRIVE: I want things to be as broad and accessible as possible. I want everything from small, low-budget independent films to potential blockbusters to be released in those out-of-competition time slots. For obvious reasons, we’re also looking for films from Sundance, Berlin and Cannes to appear in those slots, as well as potential additional world and international releases in the UK. The idea is to ensure we cover the full range of films in our programming and not be prescriptive about how we approach slots.
DEADLINE: I have visited Cameo Cinemas several times before. I remember the place was very nice, but is the screen capacity big?
DRIVE: There is a very large screen, which has about 250 seats, and there are additional screens above it, but I think what we are seeing is that it will be the centerpiece of our theater. We are also looking at other venues across the city, which may be non-traditional spaces or spaces that are not traditionally associated with film screenings.
DEADLINE: When you say non-traditional space, what do you mean? appropriate?
DRIVE: We are in the process of completing several spaces that are more in line with large seating rooms, where we are installing industry standard screens and sound. But think of it like the Sundance model, where they repurpose spaces so people can have a comfortable viewing experience, but in spaces that aren’t necessarily year-round theaters.
DEADLINES: The old Filmhouse building is in the process of reopening. Will the festival move there when it starts?
DRIVE: First of all, the partnership with Cameo is great because it returns the festival to the space it once had. However, we would love to find, in the future, a way to do the best with the Movie House once it is back up and running because it is clearly such an important cinema in the city that we are very happy to know that it is up and running. clue. tear. It is an integral part of the festival. The idea is that we want to position our new festival as a collaborative festival, so that it uses many spaces, not limited to one particular location. We prefer the idea of footprints.
DEADLINES: It has been a tumultuous few years in Edinburgh. What is the new executive structure? From what I understand, it is now completely separate from the Motion Picture Center.
DRIVE: Yes, we are a completely separate new entity that we have been building over the past few months. We’ve had really important support from Screen Scotland and Isabel there. We have a solid plan. There is a lot of goodwill as there is a lot of enthusiasm for what we are trying to build, especially the edge collaboration element that brings new possibilities for new jobs and talent.
2024-03-29 15:16:46
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