The relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced that this year’s 77th edition of the festival will open with Nora Fingscheidt's adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir, The Outrun. The festival has also announced that its shorts competition will be titled The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence with the legendary film editor in attendance.
The Outrun stars Saoirse Ronan (Ladybird, Brooklyn) as a young woman who finds herself washed up back home on the Scottish islands of Orkney as she battles to rebuild her life after a decade of addiction. Ronan, who also co-produced the film, will join filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt (System Crasher) in attendance at this year’s EIFF, alongside writer Amy Liptrot and the film’s producers Sarah Brocklehurst and Dominic Norris.
The film had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be released by StudioCanal in the UK and Ireland on September 27. Executive producers on The Outrun are Protagonist Pictures, BBC Film, Screen Scotland and MBK Productions.
Schoonmaker is celebrated for her iconic work as an editor on landmark moments in cinema history and for her legendary collaborations with Martin Scorsese, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon. The award comes with a cash prize of £15,000.
The short film competition runs alongside four additional shorts programs, 10 world-premiere feature films competing for The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence and programming strands including Out of Competition - which includes international premieres, UK premieres and additional world premieres, a Midnight Madness strand showcasing the best in genre cinema from around the world and a retrospective strand honoring film history. Industry activity will run across the first weekend of the festival with announcements around guests and activities to follow in the next weeks. Industry delegates will experience the wealth of the film program and also access all that is on show in the wider festivals month via new collaborations with partners including Screen Fringe.
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 whilst 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.
The full EIFF program will be launched on July 4 when tickets will also go on sale.
EIFF director, Paul Ridd said, “The Outrun is a truly special film. Powered by an electric and fearless central performance by Saoirse Ronan, this is lyrical, momentous cinema of real rigor and intelligence, and exactly the kind of bold work we want to champion with our relaunched festival. I have been a fan of Nora Fingscheidt’s uncompromising, emotional filmmaking ever since her debut System Crasher and I can think of no more fitting combination of announcements than this wonderful film as our opening with the confirmation of the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker’s gracious support for our Shorts Prize. We are honored to be working with such phenomenal women of cinema.”
Isabel Davis, executive director of Screen Scotland said, “It’s great to see Paul set out his ambition for the relaunched EIFF with such a significant title for Scotland. Orkney’s primal beauty and unique natural landscape is at the heart of things, not only as the setting but as the source of redemption, courage and healing.
“Nora’s exceptional talent, combined with Amy Liptrot’s raw, imaginative writing and Saoirse Ronan’s breathtaking performance make for a compelling and emotional ride. And it seems fitting, for a festival that intends to work with its creative partners across the Fringe, Book, TV and International Festivals that this hugely successful creative collaboration should take center stage.”
From August 15-21 the 77th edition of EIFF will take place at unique venues in Edinburgh, including Summerhall and the historic Cameo cinema.
Edinburgh International Film Festival www.edfilmfest.org