The newly relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival has confirmed it will be teaming up with the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe to open up the Film Festival programme in new venues across the city including non-traditional cinema spaces at Summerhall and the heart of the Fringe footprint.
Running from the 15th to the 21st August, the 77th edition of the EIFF will be embedded in the August festival alongside the Fringe Festival to allow audiences to move between film and live performances.
Spaces such as the Summerhall and others at the heart of the Fringe will now also serve as unique and unusual EIFF venues, creating a new EIFF footprint in close proximity to wider Fringe activity including theatre, music and comedy.
It has been confirmed that 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.
In addition, this year’s programme 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. Meanwhile, a Midnight Madness strand will showcase the best in genre cinema from around the world in a late night slot.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that short film programmes will also run alongside this year’s EIFF Short Film Competition, which will award a cash prize of £15,000.
Submissions to this year’s EIFF are currently open with a final deadline of 19 April.
EIFF Director, Paul Ridd has said:“We are so excited by the possibilities of August in Edinburgh and the shape of our programme 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.”
This news comes as it was recently announced that The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence is a new addition to the EIFF and 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.
To find out more visit: https://www.edfilmfest.org/