Edinburgh unveils line-up for 66th edition

The full line-up for the 66^th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival has been announced today.

It will feature 19 world premieres, 13 international premieres and 11 European premieres.

Highlights inlcude the world premieres of Berberian Sound Studio and Pusher, the international premiere of 7 Days In Havana and California Solo and the European premieres of Jon Wright’s Grabbers, Bart Leyton’s The Imposter and Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America.

The Michael Powell Award for a new British feature – which has been reinstated this year after being abolished in 2011 – will include documentaries competing alongside feature films for the first time, as will the international feature film competition.

Seven of the films competing for the Michael Powell Award are world premieres: Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio, John Roberts’ Day Of The Flowers, Katarzyna Klimkiewicz’s Flying Blind, Maja Borg’s Future My Love, Alex Barrett’s Life Just Is, Penny Woolcock’s One Mile Away and Luis Prieto’s Pusher.

Bart Layton’s Sundance favourite The Imposter, James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer (which screened at Sundance and Berlin) and Martin Wallace’s Small Creatures will also compete for the Michael Powell Award.

The International Feature Competition includes Mao Mao’s Here, Then, Alexadrew O Philippe’s The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus, Jang Kun-jae’s Sleepless Night and Dan Sallitt’s The Unspeakable Act.

The festival is introducing a new strand, British Scenes, which will introduce UK film that are made by new filmmakers which have tried out non traditional funding models or that venture into unusual thematic areas. Films in this section will include the world premieres of Jules Bishop’s Borrowed Time (which came out of Film London’s Microwave scheme) Steve Rainbow’s NFA and Scott Graham’s Shell.

Meanwhile Mark Cousins’ What Is This Film Called Love? will have its world premiere alongside Nicholas Ray’s We Can’t Go Home Again and Susan Ray’s Don’t Expect Too Much in the new Films on Film section.

The Directors’ Showcase will screen work from auteurs including Denis Côté’s Bestiaire, Johnnie To’s Life Without Principle, Peter Chan’s Dragon, Asoka Handagama’s Him, Here After HIM, and Naoko Ogigam’s Rent-A-Cat.

EIFF’s animation tradition continues with Dave Osborne’s The 99 Unbound and a special screening of Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda’s 3D version of Dr Seuss’ The Lorax as well as the previously announced closing film, Disney Pixar’s Brave.

The festival will open with the UK premiere of William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, as previously announced.

The late-night Night Moves strand will feature the world premiere of Ian Clark’s Guinea Pigs and the European premiere of Jon Wright’s monster comedy Grabbers, which screened at Sundance.

There will be a special focus on the films of Shinya Tsukamoto and Wang Bing (who will take part in a masterclass) including Tsukamoto’s latest project Kotoko.

Director Victor Kossakovsky will take part in a masterclass to acompany his film Vivan Las Antipodas, whilst actor Robert Carlyle, who stars in another film in the line-up California Solo, will be the subject of the In Person: BAFTA Scotland Interview.

EIFF’s new artistic director Chris Fujiwara, who announced the line-up for his inagural festival in Edinburgh this morning, said: “Our programme reflects the exceptionally vibrant state of current cinema. Our audiences will be able to explore a wide range of outstanding films from around the world, including work by established masters and films from new and emerging talents.”