The relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has today announced a new selection of guests attending this year’s Festival in support of World and UK Premieres and events. The Festival will also release more tickets across all screenings today at 3pm via the Edinburgh International Film Festival website and the Edinburgh Fringe website and via the EdFringe official app.
Newly announced to attend this year’s Festival are Damian Lewis and Kelly Macdonald who will present the World Premiere of Euros Lyn’s fresh reimagining of the vampire genre The Radleys.
Filmmaker Mark Cousins will attend the UK Premiere of his new award-winning documentary on Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things.
In attendance as part of the The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence will be Arash Rakhsha for the urgent documentary All the Mountains Give, Jack King for the powerful Yorkshire-set drama The Ceremony; Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard for the richly poetic Fugue, Will Seefried for the haunting queer drama Lilies Not for Me: Daisy-May Hudson for the stirring film Lollipop: Abdolreza Kahani for the subversive comedy drama A Shrine; Bryan Carberry for the clear-eyed take on artificial intelligence **smiles and kisses you**; Nina Conti for the absurdist comedy road movie Sunlight; Kelsey Taylor for the dark psychological thriller To Kill a Wolf and Manuela Irene for the delicately moving Xibalba Monster.
Also in attendance for the Festival’s Out of Competition films will be filmmaker Sophie Fiennes for the immersive documentary Acting; Daniel Reisinger for the bittersweet comedy And Mrs, Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for the Camera D’Or Winner Armand; Ben Rivers for Bogancloch about Jake Williams, a hermit living in the Scottish wilderness, Jake will also attend the Festival; Suzanne Smith and Sylvia Solf for their dance-filled South African documentary Joy Dancer; Polly Steele for the courageous documentary The Mountain Within Me, Greg Kwedar for the transcendent prison drama Sing Sing.
Previously announced guests include filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt and producer and actor Saoirse Ronan who will present the Opening Night UK Premiere of The Outrun. The legendary Thelma Schoonmaker will present the inaugural Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition Shorts as well as introducing a retrospective screening of Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s much loved classic I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) set on the Isle of Mull.
Filmmakers Carla J. Easton and Blair Young will be in attendance for the Festival’s Closing Night film, the World Premiere of the powerful new documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands.
Master provocateur Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Climax, Enter The Void) will attend the Festival for a special In Conversation event discussing his filmmaking career, ahead of presenting a special screening of Dario Argento’s horror masterpiece Suspiria (1977).
Writer, academic and former EIFF Director Lynda Myles will present Lynda Myles Celebrates: is a new special screening showcase for visionary cinematic work which this year is the World Premiere of Argentinian filmmaker Axel Cheb Terrab’s film Gala & Kiwi. Axel Cheb Terrab and the cast will also be in attendance.
Also attending as part of the Midnight Madness strand will be Coralie Fargeat for the celebrated new body horror The Substance; Kit Redstone and Arran Shearing for the enigmatic and unexpected King Baby, and James Clarke and Daniel Shephard for the adrenaline fuelled thriller Sunray: Fallen Soldier which stars a cast of former Royal Marine Commandos who will also be in attendance.
Tickets for the recently announced Keynote Address In Conversation: Alex Garland and Andrew Macdonald will go on sale at 3pm today. Press and industry tickets for this event will be made available to EIFF delegates at 8.45am the day before, on a first come first served basis.
A special late night screening of 28 Days Later will take place on Saturday 17 August at 1am in Red Lecture Theatre at Summerhall.
Gaspar Noé Presents: Surprise Film and Ali Plumb's Untitled Film Quiz Project will also be released at 3pm today (Thursday 1 August).
More information
EIFF
This year’s Festival programme features musical odysseys, dystopian worlds, laughter in the face of darkness, vivid portraits of characters from the fringes of society and reimagined inner and outer spaces. It showcases new work from filmmakers from the UK, US, Canada, Mexico, Norway, China, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Iran and beyond.
37 new feature films, 18 World Premieres including 10 World Premieres competing for the new Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, 4 special retrospective screenings, 5 short film programmes including the new Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence competition, an In Conversation event with iconic filmmaker Gaspar Noé and a strand of thrilling Midnight Madness screenings make up a seven-day celebration of world-class new cinema which also allows audiences, press and industry to easily engage with the best of Edinburgh’s other arts and cultural Festivals.
EIFF venue partners this year embed the Festival in the heart of the Fringe landscape with screenings taking place at Cameo Cinema, Summerhall, 50 George Square, in partnership with Assembly Festival; Inspace on Crichton Street in partnership with Monkey Barrel Comedy; and Tollcross Central Hall, in a programme which champions a new generation of UK and international talent, including a strong selection of first and second features.
Image credits
Header image: Still from the Radleys, courtesy of EIFF
Image 2: Still from Sunlight, courtesy of EIFF
Image 3: Still from The Substance, courtesy of EIFF