Red Carpet Glamour
As the home of innovative and exciting cinema, the Edinburgh International Film Festival has presented the big screen’s most important moments and hosted the world’s greatest filmmakers.
A mix of red carpet glamour, innovative and exciting cinematic discoveries and massive audience appeal makes Edinburgh’s Film Festival one of the world’s most popular and approachable celebrations of cinema. The Edinburgh International Film Festival is dedicated to celebrating new talent, new film trends and new ideas in cinema. The twelve-day festival in June presents film premieres, retrospectives on cinematic legends, engaging “In Person” talks and a range of industry events, masterclasses and workshops, that attract audiences of over 55,000 each year.
For over half a century stand-out events have included the UK premieres of the Oscar winning The Hurt Locker, the Oscar nominated The Illusionist and even the world-wide favourite ET: The Extra Terrestrial as well as visits from Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes and Steven Soderbergh. As supporters of the Festival, Hollywood stars Sir Sean Connery, Tilda Swinton and Robert Carlyle are amongst its patrons.
Edinburgh is a natural home for the Festival, Scotland’s dramatic history and breathtaking scenery has provided great film locations and plots over
time, supporting a new “Set-jetting” trend whereby avid film fans visit locations from their favourite movies.
The first EIFF, a programme of documentaries, was presented by the Edinburgh Film Guild alongside the 1947 Edinburgh International Festival, at which 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. The EIFF now offers a range of feature-length films and documentaries as well
as shorts, animations and music videos. •
