Edinburgh International Film Festival

Jeanne Moreau to get Retrospective at Edinburgh International Film Festival

28 Feb 2008

French screen star Jeanne Moreau is to be the subject of a special retrospective at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. Festival director Hannah McGill said Moreau showed ‘exactly the sort of trailblazing spirit, boldness and intelligence…

Ghosted - Art Malik, John Lynch & Craig Viveiros interview

Prison drama cast includes Martin Compston and David Schofield

27 Jun 2011

It’s that if actors of the calibre of John Lynch and Art Malik want a meaty role in a British feature film, the odds are number one, it’s going to have to be set in a criminal world of some description and number two, it’s more than likely going…

The sex-themed shows that turn Edinburgh into sin city during August

Pole dancers, prostitutes and rampant bedhoppers at the 2010 Fringe

16 Jul 2010

'Coming back from seeing the second Sex and the City film,’ says live artist Bryony Kimmings, ‘I was absolutely disgusted.’ And she’s not the only one groaning about the latest instalment of this once groundbreaking explicit comedy about the sexual…

The Illusionist - Sylvain Chomet's animated feature creates an Edinburgh never seen before

2 Jun 2010

Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist, the film opening the 2010 Edinburgh International Film Festival, puts a vision of Edinburgh, and rural Scotland, on screen like no other. Set in 1950s Edinburgh and the Western Isles, locations depicted in the animated…

The List Awards at Edinburgh International Film Festival

The Last Circus, Perfect Sense and Project Nim among winning films

22 Jun 2011

It’s been well documented that as a result of what festival director James Mullighan refers to as ‘straightened times’, the Edinburgh Film Festival has scaled back its more expensive operations this year, including cutting several awards. However…

Reel Science events programme among highlights of Edinburgh Film Festival

Tomboy, My Brothers and Project Nim among film highlights

17 Jun 2011

After my fearless leader’s less-than-generous appraisal of this aged Festival’s opening night, I’m hoping to bring a little bit of love for EIFF back to these web pages. Admittedly, the pared-down nature of this year’s Festival is most noticeable in the…

Weekender - Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Jack O’Connell interview

Film charting 1990s British rave scene

25 Jun 2011

“We’re a bit like a double-act”, quips Jack O’Connell, referring to himself and his co-star Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and it proves true as they talk to me. They’re ostensibly discussing Weekender, which has it’s World Premiere at this year’s Festival, but…

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 opens with an Oirish whimper (not a bang)

65th festival gets underway despite disappointing opener The Guard

16 Jun 2011

So the 65th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is now open. It opened last night, a balmy, spitty Wednesday evening, with a screening of John Michael McDonagh’s decidedly patchy Irish comedy policier The Guard starring Brendan Gleeson.

Au Revoir Taipei, Honeymooner and Third Star bring EIFF 2010 to a close

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

28 Jun 2010

Sunday 27 June. The closing days of the festival are a giddy affair: you realise that, after so many recommendations and bits of buzz floating about, the EIFF has mutated into this Cloverfield-like monster: there’s beautiful people wandering around…

Modern Love, Get Low, Aaron Schneider and the fragility of film-making at EIFF 2010

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

26 Jun 2010

Friday 25 June Friday was my last day at the Festival, and I decided to use it to take a walk off the beaten EIFF track and check out Modern Love, a short film made by a bunch of teenagers from Fife in conjunction with a company called Media…

The Last Circus

Spanish black comedy/horror takes in clowns, circus life, love and madness

20 Jun 2011

The latest film from writer/director Alex de la Iglesia is almost unclassifiable, a love story, a black comedy and horror all apply and as fans of his Accion Mutante (1992) will know it’s this glorious mess of ideas and themes that makes for such a…

EIFF day one highlight is The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

17 Jun 2010

Thursday 17th June A dirty, filthy hangover from the Opening Gala after-party was not enough to stop me fulfilling my interview commitments today, although it was enough to stop me getting into town early and securing tickets for various movies.

Edinburgh International Film Festival highlights

25 Jun 2009

The Girlfriend Experience Steven Soderbergh’s dark and fascinating study of working girls and their credit-crunched clients. American adult film industry star Sasha Gray features. Cineworld, Wed 24 Jun, 9.30pm & Sat 27 Jun, 8.45pm. 35 Shots of Rum…

You've Been Trumped - Anthony Baxter interview

Director of Donald Trump doc on being shunned by Scottish film bodies

22 Sep 2011

‘I live in Montrose and it’s 40 miles south of the Menie Estate, where Donald Trump was planning to build his golf course resort. I read the newspapers every day and I was surprised that the coverage was so one-sided. The other side of the story, as I…

Calvet - Dominic Allan & Jean Marc Calvet interview

Documentary charting extraordinary life of French artist

25 Jun 2011

CALVET depicts the struggles of Jean Marc Calvet, now an artist with burgeoning international success, to come to terms with his past and, more particularly reconcile with the son he abandoned. So far, so straightforward, but Jean Marc has quite a few…

Turin Horse - Béla Tarr interview

Hungarian director's final film takes Nietzsche's madness as starting point

23 Jun 2011

Iconic Hungarian director Béla Tarr was in Edinburgh to present his latest and reportedly final film, Turin Horse. The film is inspired by an event often reported as the beginning of Friedrich Nietzsche’s mental breakdown. The philosopher is said to…

Rabies (Kalevat)

An interesting twist on slasher movie conventions from Israel

17 Jun 2011

The problem with slasher films is that they perhaps have the most rigid rules in cinema. It’s so easy to fall into the standard clichés as set out by Halloween and Friday the 13th. Not that it means you can’t make a fun, entertaining film within these…

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 - James Mullighan interview

With just under a month to go, the new EIFF director tell us his plans

26 Apr 2011

With just over a month and a half to go until the big event, James Mullighan the new Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival tells Paul Dale about his plans So how’s it going James? Great – it’s been a busy time for us and we are…

The best upcoming events in Scotland in 2011

Highlights of the 2011 cultural calandar from Film, Music, Comedy, Theatre and Visual Art

3 Jan 2011

Huge gigs, inspiring theatre productions, comedy legends and two cute little waving bears – just a few of the things coming up in ‘11 that we can barely contain our excitement about

Skeletons, The Dry Land, Get Low and Monsters among EIFF Award Winners

29 Jun 2010

Brit comedy Skeletons bagged one of the top gongs at the 64th Edinburgh International Film Festival awards. The winners were announced at Cineworld prior to the screening of Third Star at the closing Gala last weekend, with EIFF patrons Tilda…

Nick Cave makes Irregular appearance in Edinburgh

24 Jun 2010

No, you didn’t just hallucinate that. Nick Cave’s popping down to the Roxy. This Canongate Books/Edinburgh International Film Festival multimedia event brings the Aussie music/film/literature icon, who will be reading from his novel, The Death of Bunny…

Monsters director Gareth Edwards and producer Graham King at EIFF

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

20 Jun 2010

Saturday 19 June The days, as Calvin & Hobbes astutely observed, are just packed. Saturday began with two great things: the first was Toy Story 3, which was possibly the best threequel I’ve ever seen (I’m meeting its two chief animators later today…

Privilege, The Squeeze and Private Road among highlights of EIFF After the Wave retrospective

10 Jun 2010

Paul Dale rediscovers the unappreciated strangeness of 70s UK cinema through the After the Wave retrospective

Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist among Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 highlights

5 May 2010

With The Edinburgh Film Festival 2010, which runs between 16-27 June, only a matter of weeks away, the red carpets are getting waterproofed and the popcorn machines are getting serviced. Now in its 64th year, the twelve day festival, packed with…

EIFF 2009 - Peter McDougall and John Mackenzie

11 Jun 2009

Poor, white, Protestant and on the run from Greenock’s shipyards, Peter McDougall may not have possessed the background to execute the first two Reithian tenets of public service and probity, but he certainly knew about universality. The mythology goes…