Seeking Scottish shooting stars

Saltire Society and EiFF celebrate milestone anniversaries with new £3,000 Most Promising Filmmaker Award

The Saltire Society and Edinburgh International Film Festival (EiFF) have announced a new award and £3,000 prize to be given to a promising young Scottish filmmaker to develop a short film, which will be shown as part of EiFF’s industry programme in 2017.

The Most Promising Filmmaker Award and prize fund coincides with EiFF’s 70^thanniversary celebrations this year and is part of a wider £50,000 programme of bursaries to support young and emerging Scottish creatives, recently unveiled by independent charity the Saltire Society to mark its 80^th anniversary year.

Part of EiFF’s Short Film Challenge (ESFC), which gives new and emerging filmmakers the opportunity to present their short film at a public screening during the Edinburgh Fringe, the winner of the Most Promising Filmmaker Award will be selected by the EiFF and the Saltire Society from the ten best projects shortlisted for the Edinburgh Fringe screening. As well as a £3,000 prize fund, the winner will benefit from support from the Talent Development team at EiFF to help them create their short film.

In addition to the Most Promising Filmmaker Award, the EiFF Short Film Challenge will also present an award for Best Film and for Most Innovative Use of the ESFC Theme.  The winner of the Best Film award will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2016 Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival in Bristol where they will have the opportunity to view some of the best short films from around the world.

In selecting the winner of the Most Promising Filmmaker Award, the judges will be looking for a filmmaker who demonstrates a unique vision and voice and shows the potential to become an established filmmaker in the future.

Commenting on the new award, Holly Daniel, EIFF’s Head of Industry and Talent Development said: “We are thrilled to be working with The Saltire Society in our support of new and emerging filmmakers. The EIFF Short Film Challenge aims to encourage filmmakers and short film productions and this new award will help us identify and support exciting new voices and new talents”.

Jim Tough, Executive Director of the Saltire Society, said: “It is great to be working with EiFF on this new award as part of our 80^thanniversary celebrations. I would encourage budding young filmmakers to get involved and very much look forward to viewing the works of all those shortlisted”.

The submission deadline for EIFF’s Short Film Challenge has been extended until Friday 24 June 2016 to encourage filmmakers to apply.

All films submitted must include a reference to the Challenge 2016 keyword ‘seventy’.