The newly relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced a landmark collaboration with the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe which will open the film festival program in new venues across the city including non-traditional cinema spaces at Summerhall and the heart of the Fringe footprint.
From August 15-21 the 77th edition of EIFF will see film embedded in the August festival ecosystem, allowing audiences to seamlessly experience the best of the Fringe along with the world-class program of cinema at EIFF.
Spaces in Summerhall and others at the heart of the Fringe will serve as unique and unusual EIFF venues, creating a new EIFF footprint in close proximity to wider Fringe activity including theatre, music and comedy, ensuring audience engagement with Edinburgh’s summer festivals is easier than ever before.
This year’s cinema hub will be the Cameo Cinema on Home Street, one of the original venues for EIFF and home to some of its most iconic moments, including a speech from Orson Welles as part of the festival in 1953.
This year’s EIFF program will include a strand of Out of Competition films including international premieres, UK premieres and additional world premieres sitting alongside the 10 world-premiere feature films competing for The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence.
A Midnight Madness strand will showcase the best in genre cinema from around the world in a late-night slot.
A repertory strand will champion retrospective and restored masterworks.
Innovative short film program will also run alongside this year’s EIFF Short Film Competition, which will award a cash prize of £15,000. The title of the Short Film Competition will be revealed soon.
Industry activity will run across the first weekend of the festival with more announcements to follow in the next few weeks. Submissions to the 77th EIFF are currently open, with a final deadline of 19 April.
EIFF honors more than 70 years of film festival history, showcasing the very best talent in filmmaking in a format rooted in a local Scottish context while embracing the international diversity of creative expression. The Film Festival encourages general audiences, film fans and industry professionals to make the trip this summer to Edinburgh, which is universally recognized as a place of beauty, history, discovery, and adventure.
EIFF director Paul Ridd said, “We are so excited by the possibilities of August in Edinburgh and the shape of our program as it comes together. Our collaboration with the Fringe will grow a powerful relationship between audiences across artistic forms. We will tap into the creative energy that is everywhere in the city, encouraging critics, tastemakers and above all audiences to engage with each other and all that is on show.”
Recently announced, The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence is a £50,000 award given to a single filmmaker as part of a new features competition prize at the centre of the relaunched festival. Ten world-premiere feature films will compete for the cash prize, to be determined by audience vote. EIFF will also inaugurate a short film competition with a cash prize of £15,000.
Submissions are now open. Criteria for submitting films to the Festival can be found at www.edfilmfest.org.