Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014 Programme Announced 0 1219

EIFF 2012 programme lineup

Yesterday festival director Chris Fujiwara announced the much anticipated programme for the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014. As attendees have become accustomed, the line-up is as exciting and diverse as ever, showcasing 156 films from almost 47 different countries with 11 World Premieres, 8 international premieres and much more for film enthusiasts to sink their teeth into come June 18th. Fujiwara said of this year’s festival:

“A film festival must keep trying to remain challenging, provocative and responsive, and I believe the programme we’re unveiling today shows our success at doing that this year. It’s a diverse and artistically strong programme that will delight and surprise our audiences, both old and new, and that will reward those who share our passion for exploring cinema in all its forms.”

As always, Thoughts On Film will be there to try and cover as many films as possible over the festival period. There are far too many exciting films on the line-up to name every single one but here is just some of what we’re looking forward to seeing most:

The festival is bookmarked, as always, by the Opening and Closing Galas. This year the festival opens with Hyena, a crime drama from director Gerard Johnson that has an impressive British cast including Stephen Graham, Neil Maskell and Peter Ferdinando. Closing the festival in polar opposite and much lighter fashion is romantic comedy We’ll Never Have Paris, starring Melanie Lynskey, Simon Helberg (better known as Howard from The Big Bang Theory) and Maggie Grace.

Celebrated South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host) makes the jump to Hollywood with the hugely anticipated Snowpiercer, which is part of the Director’s Showcase that aims to present work from both auteur directors and new talents. Stake Land and We Are What We Are director Jim Mickle returns with already critically acclaimed Cold In July, starring Dexter himself Michael C. Hall; and Anton Corbijn (Control, The American) directs the late-great Philip Seymour Hoffman in A Most Wanted Man, one of the actors last ever films before he sadly passed away.

There’s also James Franco and Emma Roberts who star in Palo Alto, from director Gia Coppola; Abel Ferrara’s typically controversial new film Welcome to New York; Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis star in the anticipated Hellion, which makes it’s International Premiere at the festival; and there’s the World Premiere of Castles in the Sky, starring Eddie Izzard as radar inventor Robert Watson-Watt.

Filling the eccentric quota we have the likes of Life After Beth, a zombie romantic comedy that sports an impressive cast including Aubrey Plaza, John C. Reilly and Dane DeHaan; Noel Clarke presents the World Premiere of his futuristic thriller The Anomaly, featuring a cast that includes Ian Somerhalder, Brian Cox and Luke Hemsworth; and Eli Roth delivers his latest no doubt opinion-dividing effort The Green Inferno.

On top of its usual Strands that include American Dreams, New Perspectives and Black Box, we also have two fresh country focuses for the long-running festival: Germany and Iran. And there’s also a new Strand entitled Teen Spirit, which is part of the fest’s devotion to encouraging and celebrating young talent. Lastly and excitingly, EIFF and has also teamed up with Empire Magazine for a special and rare theatrical screening of the film that was voted by the readers as The Greatest Movie of All Time for their 301st issue: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Those are just some of the highlights of what this year’s festival has to offer. For the full programme you can view the interactive PDF on the official EIFF website where you can also book tickets. The 68th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from June 18-29.

What are YOU looking forward to at this year’s festival? Let us know in the comments below. And, as always, look out for our review coverage right here on the site!

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I'm a freelance film reviewer and blogger with over 10 years of experience writing for various different reputable online and print publications. In addition to my running, editing and writing for Thoughts On Film, I am also the film critic for The National, the newspaper that supports an independent Scotland, covering the weekly film releases, film festivals and film-related features. I have a passion for all types of cinema, and have a particular love for foreign language film, especially South Korean and Japanese cinema. Favourite films include The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Feature: 2019 Oscar Predictions 0 4030

I think it’s fair to say that the run up to this year’s Oscars has been a little messier than usual, from unexpected and bizarre wins at other awards shows (Vice winning Best Editing at the BAFTAs, anyone?) to ridiculous decisions by the Academy to change the show around.

The latter has proved a particular point of contention with both those in the industry to onlookers on social media, with choices such as not letting all the songs be performed to introducing a Best Popular Film category (whatever that means) to not airing four categories live; Editing and Cinematography proved a particular issue, sending the folks of Film Twitter into a Hulk-like rage.

Thankfully all of these decisions except for the one to not have a main host have taken the walk-back of shame; I look forward to Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair again. Of course there’s still the issue of plenty of thoroughly deserving films, filmmakers and performances not being up for any Oscars at all (*cough* Toni Collette! *cough*) but of course that’s not an issue unique to this year.

The show must go on, as they say, and I thought a week out from this year’s ceremony I’d throw my hat into the ring as far as predictions goes. Below I’ve listed what I think will win in each category, as well as what I personally would like to see pick up that little gold man come next Sunday evening.

Best Picture

Want to win: A Star is Born
Will win: Green Book

Lead Actor

Want to win: Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born)
Will win: Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)

Lead Actress

Want to win: Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Will win: Olivia Colman (The Favourite)

Supporting Actor

Want to win: Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Will win: Mahershala Ali (Green Book)

Supporting Actress

Want to win: Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Will win: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)

Director

Want to win: Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
Will win: Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)

Animated Feature

Want to win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Will win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Adapted Screenplay

Want to win: BlacKkKlansman
Will win: BlacKkKlansman

Original Screenplay

Want to win: First Reformed
Will win: The Favourite

Cinematography

Want to win: Roma
Will win: Roma

Documentary Feature

Want to win: Free Solo
Will win: Minding the Gap

Foreign Language Film

Want to win: Roma
Will win: Roma

Film Editing

Want to win: BlacKkKlansman
Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody

Sound Editing

Want to win: A Quiet Place
Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody

Sound Mixing

Want to win: A Star is Born
Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody

Production Design

Want to win: Roma
Will win: The Favourite

Original Score

Want to win: If Beale Street Could Talk
Will win: Black Panther

Original Song

Want to win: Shallow (A Star is Born)
Will win: Shallow (A Star is Born)

Makeup and Hair

Want to win: Mary Queen of Scots
Will win: Vice

Costume Design

Want to win: Black Panther
Will win: The Favourite

Visual Effects

Want to win: Avengers: Infinity War
Will win: Ready Player One

Animated Short

Want to win: Bao
Will win: Bao

Live Action Short

Want to win: Marguerite
Will win: Marguerite

Documentary Short Subject

Want to win: Black Sheep
Will win: Lifeboat

Do you agree? Disagree? Feel free to leave your predictions/wishes for the winners below or tweet @TOF_UK or @rosstmiller.

Roll on Sunday!

Competition: Win King of Thieves on DVD *CLOSED* 0 3872

***This competition is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! The two winners will be contacted soon!

This coming Monday sees the DVD and Blu-ray release of King of Thieves, the latest film from acclaimed director James Marsh (Man on Wire, The Theory of Everything), which features a cavalcade of legendary British actors including Michael Caine, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon and Paul Whitehouse who team up to pull off a brazen heist. You may know the job from our own headlines as “The Hatton Garden Heist,” described as the biggest and most daring heist in British history.

It’s a good slice of old-fashioned heist movie fun which morphs in its latter half into something with surprising touches of the dangerous and sinister as suspicions and loyalties start to inevitably turn.

To celebrate the film’s release, we have two copies of it on DVD to give away, thanks to the lovely folk at Studio Canal.

thoughts-on-film-king-of-thieves-competition

To enter the competition simply answer the following question: in which classic British film does Michael Caine famously say the line, “you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”?

a) Alfie
b) The Italian Job
c) The Ipcress File

Please email your answer to rosstmiller@thoughtsonfilm.co.uk with the subject heading “King of Thieves competition.” Please also include your delivery address details so we can easily send the prize out if you win.

Now for the technical part:

  • UK residents only
  • Entrants must be 18 or over
  • Winners will be chosen at random
  • The prize for each entrant is one DVD copy of King of Thieves
  • Prize is non-transferable
  • Competition ends on Sunday January 27th at 11:59pm GMT
  • Prize will be sent from PR/studio

King of Thieves is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray from January 21st. You can already rent/buy the film digitally.

Best of luck on the competition!