Edinburgh Film Festival Expands Under Partnership With Fringe Festival Including New Venues And Competition Strands
29.03.2024 - 15:23
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will unspool in close collaboration with Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Scottish capital’s historic performing arts event, under a new expansive partnership confirmed today by the two organizations.
As part of the deal, Edinburgh’s film programme will open in close proximity to wider Fringe events, including theatre, music, and comedy performances, using new venues across the city, including non-traditional cinema spaces in Summerhall and at the heart of the Fringe footprint.
This year, the Picturehouse-run Cameo Cinema on Home Street will be the film festival’s cinema hub. The century-old cinema is one of the original EIFF venues and has hosted some of the festival’s most seminal moments, including a 1953 lecture by Orson Welles.
Also expanding are the EIFF film strands. From this year, EIFF will mount a strand of Out of Competition films, which management said will include international premieres and UK premieres. Out of Competition titles will play alongside what EIFF described as ten additional world premiere feature films competing for The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence. Previously announced, the Sean Connery Prize comes with a £50,000 cash prize.
EIFF will also host a Midnight Madness strand that will showcase international genre films in a late-night festival slot, and a new repertory strand will screen restored masterworks. The festival’s Short Film Competition will now come with a £15,000 cash prize and screen alongside what the festival has described as an “innovative short film programme.”
This year’s EIFF (Aug 15 — 21) will be the first under Festival Director Paul Ridd and Festival Producer Emma Boa, who were