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| Brides Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute |
Andrea Arnold, Ben Wheatley and Kevin and Andrew Macdonald are among the eye-catching names who will be in conversation at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival this year.
The in-person events for the festival were announced today along with the full programme for this year, including the contenders for the £50,000 Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, which also has a bespoke bronze bust of the celebrated Scots actor as a prize.
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| Paul Ridd at the 2025 programme launch Photo: Amber Wilkinson |
Announcing the selection, festival director Paul Ridd said that the month’s since last year’s “rebooted” edition “have been about birth or, should I say, rebirth and a shared mood of optimism”.
Following the restructuring of the festival last year – as a result of the collapse of the Centre for the Moving Image, which has also led to Filmhouse having to be rescued – Ridd added: “I’m thrilled to say that the 2025 edition is bigger and better.”
Last year’s Sean Connery Prize – which will again be voted for by audiences rather than a jury – was won by Jack King for The Ceremony.
The ten films in competition are all world premieres and include Canadian features Best Boy, the latest from We’re Still Together director Jesse Noah Klein and Abdolreza Kahani’s Mortician, with Kahani returning to the festival after last year’s A Shrine. Films in competition from the UK include Helen Walsh’s On The Sea, starring Barry Ward and Lorne Macfadyen, and Campbell X’s Low Rider, starring Emma McDonald (Moonhaven, 7 Keys).
In addition to taking part in an In Conversation event about her career, Arnold will present a screening of her debut Red Road. Wheatley will be in conversation with his long-time producing partner Andy Starke and there will also be an in person event with American writer/director Nia DaCosta (The Marvels), who will present a retrospective screening of Doug Liman’s Go, which she cites as an influence.
Other retrospectives include a screening of cult classic Restless Natives, a 35th anniversary screening of Silent Scream, plus Kevin Macdonald will introduce Soviet Union classic The Cranes Are Flying.
Some of the retrospectives will be hosted by the newly reopened Filmhouse, which was announced as an EIFF venue earlier this week. These will also include a series of Sean Connery Bond films and westerns in The Ranown Cycle.
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| Last year's Sean Connery Prize winner Jack King Photo: Courtesy of EIFF |
The festival’s Midnight Madness selection will open with Wheatley’s Bulk and close with Macon Blair’s reimagining of The Toxic Avenger as previously announced. Also previously announced, the festival will open with Sorry Baby and close with Paul Sng’s Irvine Welsh documentary Reality Is Not Enough.
A full programme of short films – ten of which will compete for the £15,000 Thelma Schoonmaker Prize – plus a range of industry events yet to be announced will round out the programme. The festival will run from August 14 to 20.
More information about screening times and venues can be found on the official site
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| Irvine Welsh in Reality Is Not Enough Photo: Biscuit Factory |
