Reviews & features: Edinburgh International Film Festival
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Disney Pixar’s Monsters University announced for Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013
16 May 2013
The family film will screen at the festival three weeks before release in the rest of the UK
Edinburgh International Film Festival audiences will be among the first in the UK to see Disney Pixar’s latest offering, Monsters University. The Family Gala 3D screening will take place on Sun 23 Jun in the Festival Theatre, with an exclusive schools…
Watch: trailers for the Richard Fleischer retrospective at EIFF 2013
16 Apr 2013
Edinburgh International Film Festival to screen six of the American director's films
The Edinburgh International Film Festival has started releasing the first few snippets of information about its 2013 programme. As well as featuring Karen Gillian romcom Not Another Happy Ending as its closing film (read what Gillan says about it in our…
Edinburgh Film Festival 2012 programme launched
30 May 2012
Chris Fujiwara reveals extensive world cinema programme for EIFF 2012
This year the Edinburgh International Film Festival 's new director, Chris Fujiwara, has devised a brave and eclectic programme in an attempt to return the festival to its former glory. With a similar format to previous years - with several strands…
Shinji Somai retrospective at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012
Introduction to one of Japan’s most popular and respected filmmakers
It often seems like there’s an infinite wellspring of Japanese filmmakers revered in their home country yet barely heard of overseas, with every year bringing yet another retrospective of some unheralded cinematic maestro. It’s all enough to leave those…
Strong EIFF short film programme includes Night Mayor, The Great Race and Pentecost
27 Jun 2011
Edinburgh International Film Festival shorts round-up
Sometimes the short film programme can look like a lesser sibling of the main festival, but this year it was one of the few aspects of EIFF that was in better health than ever. With a fancy new venue in the form of an upgraded George Square Theatre, a…
Ghosted - Art Malik, John Lynch & Craig Viveiros interview
27 Jun 2011
Prison drama cast includes Martin Compston and David Schofield
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…
Highlights among mixed bag suggest hope for return to cinephilia at EIFF
27 Jun 2011
Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when life gives you a programme for an international film festival that misspells the Coen Brothers name (among other heinous typographical and grammatical crimes), best take the bull by the horns and make…
How should the EIFF move forward?
27 Jun 2011
Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011
When the lights came up on The Guard, this year’s opening film, my overriding thought was, 'that was fine'. It was quite funny and had a good cast, but was entirely unadventurous filmmaking. Fine, but nothing more. As a tone-setter for the 'reinvented…
Calvet - Dominic Allan & Jean Marc Calvet interview
25 Jun 2011
Documentary charting extraordinary life of French artist
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…
Weekender - Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Jack O’Connell interview
25 Jun 2011
Film charting 1990s British rave scene
“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…
Convento - Jarred Alterman interview
25 Jun 2011
Portrait of Dutch artist family and kinetic sculpture
Jarred Alterman, director of the documentary Convento, takes me round the tie-in exhibition at Teviot Row House, full of the kinetic sculptures by Christiaan Zwanikken that populate Alterman’s dreamlike film. Passing a gang of creepy, animated and…
Bikini Machine compose a 'cinéconcert' score for Desperado
Each year, the French Institute for Scotland takes part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and strives to bring the media of music and film together to form one piece of intercontinental art. This year, the Institute have invited five…
War correspondent Martin Bell to give Oliver Stone another chance
Martin Bell will be introducing Oliver Stone's Salvador at the EIFF
‘I tend to walk out of films about wars that I reported on. I walked out of Oliver Stone’s Salvador when I first saw it in 1986 that’s why it will be interesting to present it and revisit it in Edinburgh. I remember he satirised a female reporter I know…
Turin Horse - Béla Tarr interview
23 Jun 2011
Hungarian director's final film takes Nietzsche's madness as starting point
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…
Troll Hunter - André Øvredal interview
23 Jun 2011
Director of the Norwegian moc doc taking film festivals by storm
Something that’s pretty thin on the ground at Edinburgh this year are genuine ‘festival finds’; films from unknown filmmakers that seem to come out of nowhere and really impress audiences. TrollHunter is perhaps the closest thing to that in this year’s…
The List Awards at Edinburgh International Film Festival
22 Jun 2011
The Last Circus, Perfect Sense and Project Nim among winning films
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…
Project Nim - James Marsh interview
21 Jun 2011
Man on Wire director charts 1970s chimp experiment in extraordinary film
‘I’m here bleary-eyed straight from four weeks of shooting a feature film in Dublin!’ So claims Project Nim director James Marsh when I meet him, but you wouldn’t know it from the espresso-fuelled 30 minutes of rapid discussion that follows, in which…
Our Day Will Come - Romain Gavras interview
20 Jun 2011
Provocative debut feature from director of MIA's Born Free furthers redhead theme
From the stage of the Filmhouse on Friday night, Romain Gavras introduces the UK premiere of his debut feature film as a “romantic comedy”. Those who have seen his controversial music video for MIA’s Born Free are not fooled. And shortly, that will be…
Oliver Sherman - Ryan Redford interview
20 Jun 2011
Director of drama charting reunion between two war veterans
In retrospect, the odds were against us: Fresh-faced freelancer meets first time director straight from transatlantic travel and at the end of a long day’s junket. Ryan Redford, a 31-year-old director showing so few signs of media training one would…
Perfect Sense an ambitious film that demands a lot from audience
20 Jun 2011
David Mackenzie’s feature thought-provoking and quietly moving
The weekend saw one of the biggest events of this year’s EIFF programme, as the massive Festival Theatre played host to the European premiere of David Mackenzie’s new film, the Glasgow-set sci-fi romance Perfect Sense, on Saturday night. I interviewed…
The Last Circus
20 Jun 2011Spanish black comedy/horror takes in clowns, circus life, love and madness
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…
Hell and Back Again depicts life of a Marine in Afghanistan
17 Jun 2011
EIFF screening of photojournalist Danfung Dennis’ first feature film
History suggests that the constant drip of unfettered, prime-time images depicting death and defeat made a vital contribution to turning the tide of American popular opinion against the war in Vietnam. It’s hard to imagine a similar decisive impact in…
Reel Science events programme among highlights of Edinburgh Film Festival
17 Jun 2011
Tomboy, My Brothers and Project Nim among film highlights
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…
Rabies (Kalevat)
17 Jun 2011An interesting twist on slasher movie conventions from Israel
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 opens with an Oirish whimper (not a bang)
16 Jun 2011
65th festival gets underway despite disappointing opener The Guard
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.


