The Edinburgh international film festival is to return later this year in a scaled-down form after the shock announcement of its closure in October 2022 when Centre for the Moving Image, operator of both the festival and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema chain, went into administration.
The festival announced that it had joined with the Edinburgh international festival, the large-scale summer event renowned for its theatre, comedy and musical performances, to present a “compact selection of films” in “a hand-picked programme” designed to “celebrate the work of exceptional local and global film-makers”.
The festival will benefit from a £400,000 grant from Screen Scotland, and has installed a new programme director, Kate Taylor, who previously acted as senior programmer at the London film festival. Screen Scotland is also looking to solidify the festival’s future, saying it will work with a group of industry experts to create a standalone yearly event from 2024 onwards.
The announcement came at the same time as the British Film Institute said it had appointed Kristy Matheson, Edinburgh’s creative director for its 2022 edition, to the post of festivals director, which includes overseeing the high profile London film festival.
Taylor is due to announce details of Edinburgh’s programme in June 2023, while the event has returned to its traditional August slot to run alongside the rest of the city’s summer festival events, having moved to June in 2008.
Meanwhile, the future of Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema remains unclear, after it was revealed in December that bids from cinema operators to buy the venue were rejected. Gregory Lynn, owner of the Prince Charles cinema in London, said his offer was beaten by one that “blew everyone else out of the water”.
