Edinburgh International Film Festival Announces 2013 Programme 0 924

EIFF 2012 programme lineup
It’s nearly that time of year again, when Scotland’s capital plays host to the longest continually running film festival in the world.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival has just today announced its programme for 2013 and as usual it sports an interesting array of films from all over the world, 146 features from 53 countries to be exact, and ranging from those already established from other festivals to brand new features that those who attend will have the pleasure of being the first ones to discover.
Among the near 150 films showing, a few highlights stick out:
The opening night gala of the festival is Breathe In, Drake Doremus’ follow-up to his great romance story Like Crazy which reunites him with star Felicity Jones. And closing the festival is Not Another Happy Ending, starring former Doctor Who assistant Karren Gillan.
Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg) has his celebrated Frances Ha, starring Greta Gerwig; The Bling Ring is Sofia Coppola’s latest film starring Emma Watson as part of a group of fame-obsessed teens who break into the Hollywood homes of celebrities; Sarah Polley follows up her divisive Take This Waltz with documentary Stories We Tell; and James Wan follows his terrific horror Insidious with The Conjuring, starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
There’s Upstream Color, the second feature from director Shane Carruth (who previously made the mind-bending Primer) which has been receiving rave reviews from pretty much everyone who’s seen it; The East, a film about a radical anarchist group that sports a great cast including Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard, Brit Marling and Toby Kebbell; and Pixar will be represented again in full-form with Monsters University, its prequel to hit film Monsters, Inc. (they had the likes of Brave, Toy Story 3 and WALL-E in previous years).
As well as bringing in films that have already played elsewhere to give them UK and European premieres, the festival also has lots of World Premieres. Here’s the list of films that are getting their World Premiere at the fest:
  • 10
  • The Battles of the Sexes
  • Blackbird
  • Desert Runners
  • Fire in the Night
  • A Long Way from Home
  • The Making of Us
  • Mister John
  • Not Another Happy Ending
  • Outpost 3: Rise of the Spetsnaz
  • The Sea
  • Svengali
  • UWANTME2KILLHIM?
  • We Are the Freaks
As always the Retrospective is a big part of the festival’s schedule and this year there’s two – one has been previously announced, focusing on the feature and short films by French director Jean Grémillon and the second celebrates the work of American director Richard Fleischer (Soylent Green, Tora! Tora! Tora!). There’s also a Focus segment of the festival celebrating Korean and Swedish cinema.
There are certain films not showing that I would have liked to have made an appearance, including Nicholas Winding Refn’s apparently ultra-violent Only God Forgives (which has received some scathing reviews thus far), and Cannes winners Blue is the Warmest Color and Nebraska (directed by Alexander Payne), which won the Palme d’Or and Best Actor awards, respectively. However, with the close proximity of Cannes to EIFF and high profile of the films involved, I think that was wishful thinking on my part! I’m also a tiny bit surprised that Before Midnight, the third part in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise/Sunset trilogy, hasn’t turned up in the programme but it’s not that big of a deal considering it opens in regular cinemas a couple of days after the start of the festival anyway.
Chris Fujiwara is again Artistic Director after taking up the mantle after the shaky 2011 fest when it didn’t have anyone in such a capacity (although its lacklustre nature was greatly exaggerated). Fujiwara’s astute shaping of the festival into something exciting is extremely evident once more. He said:
“I’m very proud that in my second year at the Festival we’ve again put together a programme that reflects our festival’s commitment to international cinema, while giving our audiences opportunities to discover a broad range of outstanding work from British filmmakers.”
Once again I will be there covering the whole festival for Thoughts on Film and I hope to discover many great films from across the world. Check back here throughout 19-30 June (and beyond) for my review coverage and for even more up-to-date reports follow me on twitter @rosstmiller and the site @TOF_UK.
Tickets for festival screenings will be open to the public from Monday June 3rd. You can read the entire festival brochure, including timetables and ticket prices, here. To whet your appetite even more, here’s the official preview trailer:

[youtube id=”QhmQMP1EjAA” width=”600″ height=”350″]

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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 4031

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!