The Edinburgh International Film Festival: British Gala

The British Gala section of the festival celebrates the best and most recent movies in the British film industry and from this section the Michael Powell Award-winner will be chosen.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

Complete History Of My Sexual Failures follows independent filmmaker Chris Waitt as he interviews his ex-girlfriends in an attempt to find out why they dumped him.

This revealing and humorous documentary sees the slacker filmmaker go on a sexual and emotional odyssey in a desperate quest to solve his innumerable problems.

When scraggly, endearingly hapless filmmaker Chris Waitt gets dumped by his girlfriend the last in a long line of disastrous affairs he resolves to find out what exactly is wrong with him.

Why have all his relationships ended in acrimony or indifference? What will it take for him to dodge everlasting loneliness?

The only way to find out is to ask his past paramours point blank. And so begins an odyssey of inadequacy as our clueless crusader confronts exes who turn out to be mostly incredulous, crushed, or cross as they skewer him with remembrances of his chronic lateness, self-absorption, and delusion.

Not even his mother can muster much sympathy! Meanwhile, Waitt attempts to jump-start his love life through Internet dating.

But lo and behold, a different kind of inadequacy emerges a kind that no amount of therapy, acupuncture, or even a session with a dominatrix can fix. Suffice to say nothing short of a Viagra overdose does the trick, sending Waitt careening to a desperately uncomfortable climax I mean, catharsis.

Of course watching Waitt get his comeuppance is a deliciously gratifying romp for every woman ever wronged by a useless boyfriend.

But A Complete History of my Sexual Failures is more than just sweet revenge or hilarious farce; at its core are soft, gooey truths about the sacrifices and self-knowledge required for grown-up love.

Donkey Punch

Three gorgeous ladies on holiday in a Mediterranean beach town are determined to let their hair down and leave their troubles behind.

The festivities begin at a nightclub, where libations flow and libidos grow.

As luck would have it, they encounter three charming lads who are more than eager to provide them with what they are looking for.

Collectively they make their way to the yacht where the men crew. Caught up in the hedonistic wave created by the sexual tension, and spurred by the fact that the yacht's owner is away, they throw caution to the wind and head out to sea.

This is where the terror begins.

Starring: Jaime Winstone, Julian Morris, Tom Burke, Nichola Burley, Jay Taylor, Robert Boulter

Man On Wire

August 7, 1974--A young Frenchman named Philippe Petit steps out on a wire suspended 1,350 feet above ground between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

He dances on the wire with no safety net for almost an hour, crossing it eight times before he is arrested for what becomes known as 'the artistic crime of the century.'

In the months leading up to his clandestine walk, Petit assembles a team of accomplices to plan and execute his 'coup' in the most intricate detail. How do they pull it off?

Moving between New York and his secret training camp in rural France, Petit and his team plot every detail.

Like a band of professional bank robbers, the tasks they face seem virtually insurmountable. But Petit is a man possessed; nothing will thwart his mission to conquer the world’s tallest buildings.

Unfolding like a delicious heist film, Man on Wire brings Petit’s extraordinary adventure back to life with visceral immediacy ripened with post-9/11 nostalgia.

In candid interviews, Petit and all the key participants relish this chance to tell their story. Buoyed with eye-catching archival footage, clever dramatizations, and delightful visual effects, filmmaker James Marsh, like his daring subject, pulls off an astonishing coup.

Stone of Destiny

With breezy confidence and Ealingesque charm, this long-awaited feature recounts the notorious 1950 theft of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey.

Charlie Cox plays fiery student Ian Hamilton, whose reckless determination fuelled the ultimate symbolic gesture for Scottish independence (and on whose memoirs the script is based).

Co-starring Billy Boyd, Stephen McCole, Robert Carlyle and Kate Mara, this rousing adventure yarn cements a modern Scottish legend.

Also showing in this category: -Summer

-Somers Town

-Helen

-Dummy

-Better Things

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw