The Edinburgh International Film Festival: Introduction

16 June 2008

1Comments | Comment on this Article

This week sees the 61st Edinburgh International Film Festival begin on the 18th running for two weeks straight through until 29th.

Established in 1947 the EIFF is now the longest continually running film festival in the world that showcases feature films and documentaries from all over the world as well as focusing on the best of British.

When the festival was founded it was for documentary movies only before going on to include feature films, shorts and animation amongst it's line-up to compete with the likes of Venice Film festival and Cannes.

The films are split into several categories:

Gala - All have a well know actor or director attached to them

British Gala - From a known British actor or director

Rosebud - Films from first or second time directors

Directors' Showcase - Highlights films from important directors

Night Moves - Horror and action films either from countries whose mainstream films are given little world wide release, or from independent filmmakers

Document - Both feature length and short documentaries Retrospective - Films from an important director that many people have not seen on the cinema screen

Black Box - Abstract and artistic films

Mirrorball - Music videos, Music-related documentaries

In-Person - Interviews with important figures from the cinema industry

The gala will showcase 142 feature length movies from a total of twenty nine countries with 113 new features and fifteen world premieres.

Opening this year's festival is John Maybury's The Edge of Love starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller.

Vito Rocco's comedy Faintheart, a world premiere, starring Eddie Marsan, Jessica Hynes and Ewan Bremner will close the EIFF on the 29th.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

View the Gala Section

View the British Gala Section

View the Documentaries Section