Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Edinburgh film festival announces initial lineup

David Hare's all-star political thriller Page Eight and Ewan McGregor sci-fi film Perfect Sense among highlights at 2011 festival dogged by negative publicity

The first film in 20 years to be directed by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Hare and a sci-fi thriller starring Trainspotting alumni Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner will be among the highlights of this year's Edinburgh film festival, organisers have announced.

The troubled event, which has been at the centre of suggestions that it bungled a recent revamp, today revealed a swath of films ahead of the festival's official launch later this month. Organisers said the aim was to continue showcasing the work of British directors while also providing a platform for first-time film-makers.

Hare's film is the political thriller Page Eight, featuring an all-star British cast including Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon and Ralph Fiennes. The film-maker, whose screenplays for The Hours and The Reader both picked up Oscar nods, said he was pleased to be returning to directing.

"Page Eight is my first film as director for 20 years, and also, I think, the first British film on how intelligence operations have had to adapt to the new century," Hare said. "So I couldn't be happier than for its world premiere to be at Britain's most interesting and influential film festival."

The McGregor/Bremner sci-fi thriller, Perfect Sense, comes from director David Mackenzie, a regular at the festival with films such as Young Adam and Hallam Foe. Other movies that will receive world premieres include Niall MacCormick's coming-of-age drama Albatross, starring Sebastian Koch and Julia Ormond, and Weekender, Karl Golden's comedy drama about the 90s Ibiza scene starring Skins' Jack O'Connell.

"The Edinburgh international film festival has long been regarded as the ideal launch pad for important new British cinema and the place at which UK emerging talent is nurtured," said festival director James Mullighan. "The films announced today confirm that those traditions continue into 2011. Of nearly 3,000 films submitted to EIFF, 58 were British feature fiction films and we're delighted to be in a position to showcase some of them to Edinburgh audiences in June."

Edinburgh was at the centre of unfortunate negative publicity last month when the Oscar-winning actor Tilda Swinton suggested her much-publicised role in curating the event had been minimal. A patron of the festival for a number of years, Swinton had been revealed as one of a team of "dreamy outsiders" who would oversee a more intimate, personal event after the departure of previous festival director Hannah McGill last year following a slump in ticket sales.

"The task of programming a film festival of the scale of the EIFF is something I ? for one ? have literally no aspirations to approach," said Swinton. "A few emails to friends cannot, in any light, be construed as the curatorship of a major international film festival."

This year's festival, the 65th edition, will take place at venues across Edinburgh from 15 to 26 June.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/04/edinburgh-film-festival-2011-lineup

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