EIFF to host 23 world premieres

The festival, which runs from June 17 to 28, will also have sixteen international premieres. Sam Mendes’ Away We Go will open the festival.

Duncan Ward’s Boogie Woogie, Brian Percival’s A Boy Called Dad, Jan Dunn’s The Calling, Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold and Duncan Jones’ Moon will be among the British Galas competing for the UK Film Council-sponsored Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature.

The films in competition for the inaugural International Best Feature include Jonathan Auf Der Heide’s Van Diemen’s Land; Noah Buschel’s The Missing Person; Sarah Watt’s My Year Without Sex; Per Hanefjord’s Ekland and Max Francos’ Nakba.

Galas will also include Rebecca Miller’s The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee; Martin Provost’s Seraphine; Peter Hewitt’s The Maiden Heist and Rowan Woods’ Fragments.

All of the films in the Gala and British Gala sections, including the opening and closing night films, are eligible for the Standard Life Audience Award.

The documentary section includes world premieres of Isolation by Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull and No Great Love by Michael Whyte.

The Director’s Showcase will feature Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker among others.

Speaking to Screen International, EIFF artistic director Hannah McGill said: “A lot of the film-makers have been supported by public financing, such as the New Cinema Fund, but we’re seeing people looking at creative means of privately financing their films. They are being aided by technology.”

She referred to Jonathan auf der Heide’s Van Diemen’s Land which was shot on a small budget with a RedCamera and a small amount of private financing.“People are not waiting for the holy grail of public funding. They’re just getting on with it.”