Tag: cinema

EIFF & Unique Events launch monthly Drive-In Movies at Edinburgh Airport

Edinburgh International Film Festival and Unique Events, the team behind the capital’s successful ‘Film Fest in the City’ outdoor cinema events have teamed up with Edinburgh Airport to produce a new monthly event for cinema fans throughout the rest of 2020.

From Wednesday 8 July those who have registered online at www.edfilmfest.org.uk will be the first to receive detailed film and ticket announcements and be able to book for these special events, which take-off on Friday 7 – Sunday 9 August, giving families and young film fans some end-of-school holiday fun, then taking place on the last weekend of each month from Thursday 27 -Sunday 30 August.

The film loaded weekends, programmed by the EIFF team, will see four screenings a day starting with a ‘Drive-In Kids Club’ at 10am, Family Favourites in the afternoon, an evening Blockbuster and a late-night screening of Cult Classics for grown-ups.

There will be special Halloween and Christmas screenings and activities in October and December. The films will be shown on a state of the art 100sqm LED screen, one of the largest mobile screens in the world with the audio broadcast straight to car radios, for audiences to control the soundtrack.

Pre-film activity will help to keep people entertained before the movie starts with on-screen movie quizzes, car discos, competitions and give-aways. Cinema food and snacks will be available to order and purchase pre-event and collected on arrival at the event, along with a selection of quality local food suppliers on-site to support local businesses.

With cars parked 2m apart Drive-In Movies will be a safe environment for families and friends to enjoy an event, in line with government guidelines for outdoor events. Standard tickets are expected to be priced at £35.00 per vehicle for up to 5 people, with a number of tickets being made available to EIFF’s community partners. Films will be captioned where possible.

Ken Hay, Chief Executive of Edinburgh International Film Festival said: “We’re delighted we’ve found a way to bring some great films to Edinburgh audiences despite the challenges we currently face.

“It’s not the Festival as we know it but still a way to bring a part of it to life this year. Film Fest in the City has been a very popular part of the Festival in recent years and working with Unique Events again we hope to be able to create that fun atmosphere at our new airport based Drive-In Movies starting with two fantastic weekends in August.”

Unique Events Directors Penny Dougherty & Alan Thomson said: “We’re thrilled to be producing this brand-new event for Edinburgh and continuing our successful partnership with EIFF to deliver another exhilarating outdoor cinema experience.

“Each month, the Drive-In Movies will let audiences get-away from it all, with a packed programme of classic cinema in a fun, safe environment for family and friends, whilst supporting local businesses and events.”

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport said:“Edinburgh is world renowned for its festivals and although things are a bit different at the moment, it’s important we all try to provide and hold on to little bits of normality where we can.

“We know that people are missing things they love to do such as heading off on holiday or trips to the cinema, so we are more than happy to try and provide a bit of both in one night.

“We’re looking forward to working with the EIFF and Unique to make this a success and see the Edinburgh Airport Drive-In really take-off!”

Further details of Ed Film Fest At Home released

Edinburgh International Film Festival and Curzon Home Cinema are delighted to announce Clemency, written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu and starring Alfre Woodard, and Capital in the 21st Century, directed by Justin Pemberton and based on the bestselling book by Thomas Piketty, as the latest additions to the ED FILM FEST at Home programme presented by EIFF and CHC.

As announced last week, the ambitious programme also features such acclaimed titles as Last and First Men with Tilda Swinton, Ron Howard’s Rebuilding Paradise and the latest film from the Dardenne brothers, Young Ahmed.

A Q&A with director Thomas Clay and the cast of Fanny Lye Deliver’d – Maxine Peake, Charles Dance, Tanya Reynolds and Freddie Fox – will take place at 8.30pm on Monday, 29 June with further events to be announced in due course.

A brand-new film will be presented each day of the 12-day festival, with films playing for between 2 and 12 days, each priced at £9.99.

Full schedule of films is available to browse here.

Full line-up and dates for EDFILMFEST AT HOME include:

CLEMENCY (24 June – 5 July) written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu and starring Alfre Woodard. This award-winning feature focuses on a prison warden Bernadine Williams who confronts the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is now sanctioned to kill. Chinonye first had the idea for Clemency after Troy Davis’ execution in a state prison in 2011 and spent 4 years researching for the film.

CAPITAL IN THE 21ST CENTURY (3 – 5 July) directed by Justin Pemberton and based on the best-selling and one of the most powerful books of our time, written by French economist Thomas Piketty. This UK premiere is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, shining a new light on the world around us and its growing inequalities.

REBUILDING PARADISE (29 June – 5 July) directed by Ron Howard. The UK premiere of the moving documentary, by Hollywood director Ron Howard, that chronicles the post-fire lives of the residents of Paradise, California, which was 95% razed to the ground by the so-called ‘Camp Fire’ of November 2018.

FANNY LYE DELIVER’D (24 June – 5 July) directed by Thomas Clay and starring Maxine Peake, Charles Dance, Freddie Fox and Tanya Reynolds. Set in Shropshire in 1657, this folk horror/thriller concerns a young woman living a remote, rural, puritan existence with her older husband and young son, until the arrival of a young couple on the run who introduce Fanny Lye to a world of possibilities…

PERFUMES (LES PARFUMS) (1 – 2 July) directed by Grégory Magne, starring Emmanuelle Devos, Gustave Kervern, Sergi Lopez, Grégory Montel. The UK premiere of this French comedy drama set in the ‘nose’ (nez) business. A once-famous ‘nez’ (in the perfume world) sells her extraordinary olfactory facility to any company that’s prepared to pay for it. She’s a selfish diva, but one that might just have a shot at redemption through her relationship with her new chauffeur, a man with many troubles of his own.

SAINT FRANCES (25 – 27 June) directed by Alex Thompson and written by and starring Kelly O’Sullivan. The UK premiere of this US comedy drama which sees Bridget, 34, aimless and accidentally pregnant, decide to have an abortion. Needing a job, she gets one (by luck rather than design) she’s not really very well suited to – that of nanny, to the precocious Frances.

THE TRAITOR (28 June – 5 July) directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Pierfrancesco Favino. A masterful telling of the real-life story of Tommaso Buscetta, the main informant in the ‘Maxi’ (Sicilian Mafia) Trial in Palermo in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

A WHITE, WHITE DAY (27 – 29 June) directed by Hlynur Palmason and starring Ingvar Sigurdsson. Icelandic drama about a recently retired policeman who becomes obsessed that his recently-deceased wife was having an affair. His growing obsession starts to threaten the well-being of the rest of his family.

LAST AND FIRST MEN (3 – 5 July) directed by Jóhann Jóhannsson and narrated by Tilda Swinton. The UK premiere of the late, great composer’s directorial debut, a stunning audio-visual, science-fiction essay on human mortality and the end of all things. Loosely based on the 1930 Olaf Stapledon novel of the same name, Tilda Swinton voices a human from its 18th distinct evolution from some two billion years in the future (the Last Men), reaching back to the First Men (us) for help, as the end of time approaches.

YOUNG AHMED (25 June – 2 July) directed and written by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. After taking to heart an extremist interpretation of the Qu’ran, a Belgian teenager hatches a plan to kill his teacher.

ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH (25 June – 5 July) directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky and Nicolas de Pencier, narrated by Alicia Vikander. This stunning documentary, filmed in 20 countries across 6 continents, documents the impact the human race has had on Planet Earth to illuminate the question: have we entered a new geological epoch?

VOLCANO (26 June – 5 July) directed by Roman Bondarchuk. Lukas, a translator working for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) gets stranded in the middle of nowhere in southern Ukraine. Life, and the people, are nothing like Lukas has ever imagined before, and getting out of there is his only priority. But warming to his strange new hosts, perhaps there’s more going on here than first meets the eye.

LITTLE GIRL (2 – 4 July) directed by Sebastian Lifshitz, UK premiere. Sasha, 7, a little girl living in the Northeast of France, was assigned male at birth. The film details, with extraordinary sensitivity, Sasha and her very supportive family’s seemingly endless quest for her to be recognised as a girl by the school she loves.

ED FILM FEST AT HOME runs 24 June – 5 July 2020.

EIFF and Curzon Home Cinema bring you EDFILMFEST AT HOME

Are we all missing cinema, or what? In particular, the steady flow of new films arranged for us by the nation’s film distributors and your favourite cinemas.

Right now, the Edinburgh International Film Festival should be gearing up to the mid-June opening of its 74th edition. As announced previously, the Festival has had to be postponed in line with the UK Government and Scottish Government’s public health advice, but it’s bringing you the next best thing.

Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and Curzon Home Cinema (CHC) are delighted to present an online festival of the best new cinema for you to enjoy at home.

They’ve scoured the future film release schedules and have handpicked a selection of some of the best upcoming films – all likely to figure in the programmes of the best cinemas in the land come the glorious day they are all able to open once more, and hope with this sneak preview to generate excitement and anticipation for their eventual cinema releases.

A brand-new film will be presented each day of the 12 day festival, with films playing for between 2 and 12 days, each priced at £9.99. Alongside the films there will be live Q&As with special guests.

This special, ambitious programme features such award-winning, inspiring names as Jennifer Baichwal, Marco Bellocchio, Ron Howard, the Dardenne brothers, Tilda Swinton, Alicia Vikander and Maxine Peake.

Rod White, Director of Programming said: “We can’t bring you the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year quite as and when you know it, but we are finding ways to adapt and to share our passion for films through new initiatives. 

“We want to give our industry something to get excited about whilst all UK cinemas are closed, and get the cinema-going public excited about what films are in store for them in cinemas when we return so we’ve joined forces with Curzon Home Cinema to end (at least temporarily) this new-release hiatus.

“We’ve handpicked a selection of some of the best upcoming films from the future film release schedules and are delighted we can share those with our audiences across the UK, giving them the opportunity to see them before they [hopefully] reach our cinemas later in the year.

“Additionally, we’ve also arranged for many of them to be accompanied by online Q&As with the filmmakers which will be live and interactive when each film is released and then available with the stream for the duration it is on EDFILMFEST AT HOME. We’re hugely grateful to all the distributors who have supplied films for this series.”

Damian Spandley, Director of Programme and Distribution Sales – Curzon said: “The Edinburgh International Film Festival is a highlight of the UK film calendar and it is a crushing shame not to bring some of our films to the city this June.

“But with this selection of exciting new titles, we believe EDFILMFEST AT HOME on Curzon Home Cinema will bring the spirit of the festival to film fans across the country.”

Sambrooke Scott, Head of Audience Development at Screen Scotland said: “Throughout lockdown, film festivals have been finding imaginative ways of sharing great cinema despite physical isolation, and EDFILMFEST AT HOME is a great example of this.

“This new collaboration between Edinburgh International Film Festival and Curzon Home Cinema provides a unique opportunity to view some of the best upcoming releases, celebrating and supporting cinema during an incredibly difficult time for the exhibition sector.”

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events at VisitScotland, said: “This is a great example of an event innovating to engage with its audience in difficult circumstances for the industry.

“While it is important that people continue to stay at home, I’m delighted that film lovers will still be able to enjoy the insight and programming expertise of Edinburgh International Film Festival in some form and as one of the world’s most renowned film festivals it is heartening to see the EIFF adapting to deliver content via this pioneering platform.”

The schedule of films and Q&As will be released on 17 June. The films lined up so far for EDFILMFEST AT HOME include:

REBUILDING PARADISE directed by Ron Howard. The UK premiere of the moving documentary, by Hollywood director Ron Howard, that chronicles the post-fire lives of the residents of Paradise, California, which was 95% razed to the ground by the so-called ‘Camp Fire’ of November 2018.

SAUDI RUNAWAY written and directed by Susanne Regina Meures. The UK premiere of a documentary in which Muna, a 26-year-old arranged-bride-to-be, makes the courageous decision to escape the country whilst on her honeymoon in Abu Dhabi, which she films on her two mobile phones. As gripping as any suspense thriller.

FANNY LYE DELIVER’D directed by Thomas Clay and starring Maxine Peake, Charles Dance, Freddie Fox and Tanya Reynolds. Set in Shropshire in 1657, this folk horror/thriller concerns a young woman living a remote, rural, puritan existence with her older husband and young son, until the arrival of a young couple on the run who introduce Fanny Lye to a world of possibilities…

PERFUMES (LES PARFUMS) directed by Grégory Magne, starring Emmanuelle Devos, Gustave Kervern, Sergi Lopez, Grégory Montel. The UK premiere of this French comedy drama set in the ‘nose’ (nez) business. A once-famous ‘nez’ (in the perfume world) sells her extraordinary olfactory facility to any company that’s prepared to pay for it. She’s a selfish diva, but one that might just have a shot at redemption through her relationship with her new chauffeur, a man with many troubles of his own.

SAINT FRANCES directed by Alex Thompson and written by and starring Kelly O’Sullivan. The UK premiere of this US comedy drama which sees Bridget, 34, aimless and accidentally pregnant, decide to have an abortion. Needing a job, she gets one (by luck rather than design) she’s not really very well suited to – that of nanny, to the precocious Frances.

THE TRAITOR directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Pierfrancesco Favino. A masterful telling of the real-life story of Tommaso Buscetta, the main informant in the ‘Maxi’ (Sicilian Mafia) Trial in Palermo in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

A WHITE, WHITE DAY directed by Hlynur Palmason and starring Ingvar Sigurdsson. Icelandic drama about a recently retired policeman who becomes obsessed that his recently-deceased wife was having an affair. His growing obsession starts to threaten the well-being of the rest of his family.

LAST AND FIRST MEN directed by Jóhann Jóhannsson and narrated by Tilda Swinton. The UK premiere of the late, great composer’s directorial debut, a stunning audio-visual, science-fiction essay on human mortality and the end of all things. Loosely based on the 1930 Olaf Stapledon novel of the same name, Tilda Swinton voices a human from its 18th distinct evolution from some two billion years in the future (the Last Men), reaching back to the First Men (us) for help, as the end of time approaches.

YOUNG AHMED directed and written by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. After taking to heart an extremist interpretation of the Qu’ran, a Belgian teenager hatches a plan to kill his teacher.

ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky and Nicolas de Pencier, narrated by Alicia Vikander. This stunning documentary, filmed in 20 countries across 6 continents, documents the impact the human race has had on Planet Earth to illuminate the question: have we entered a new geological epoch?

VOLCANO directed by Roman Bondarchuk. Lukas, a translator working for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) gets stranded in the middle of nowhere in southern Ukraine. Life, and the people, are nothing like Lukas has ever imagined before, and getting out of there is his only priority. But warming to his strange new hosts, perhaps there’s more going on here than first meets the eye.

LITTLE GIRL directed by Sebastian Lifshitz, UK premiere. This moving and inspiring documentary tells the story of Sasha, 8, who was born a biological boy but lives as a girl. The film details, with extraordinary sensitivity, Sasha and her very supportive family’s seemingly endless quest for her to be recognised as a girl by the school she loves.

The full schedule of films and Q&As will be released on Wednesday 17 June.

For more information visit www.edfilmfest.org.uk

EDFILMFEST AT HOME runs 24 June – 5 July 2020.

Parasite wins Best Picture Oscar

PARASITE became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards last night. 

The South Korean film, directed by Bong Joon-Ho, tells a story of greed and class discrimination through the relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kims.

Parasite picked up four Oscars on an unforgettable night for international cinema. Bong Joon-Ho won the Best Director award and the subtitled film also won both the Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature awards.

Accepting the Best Picture award for Parasite, Director Bong Joon-Ho said: “After winning Best International Feature, I thought I was done for the day and was ready to relax!

“When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart which is “The most personal is the most creative.” That quote was from our great Martin Scorsese.

“When I was in school, I studied Martin Scorsese’s films. Just to be nominated was a huge honor. I never thought I would win. When people in the US were not familiar with my film, Quentin always put my films on his list. He’s here. Thank you so much.Quentin, I love you.

“And Todd and Sam, great directors that I admire, if the Academy allows, I would like to get a Texas Chainsaw, split the Oscar trophy into five, and share it with all of you.

“I will drink until next morning. Thank you!”

If PARASITE was a surprise winner – 1917, The Irishman, Joker and Once Upon A Time in Holywood were all widely tipped for the Best Picture accolade – the other big Oscar winners were more predictable.

RENEE ZELLWEGGER won  Best Actress for her superb performance in JUDY, JOAQUIN PHOENIX was Best Actor for his tour de force JOKER.

LAURA DERN (Marriage Story) and BRADD PITT (Once Upon A Time in Holywood) won Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor statuettes respectively.

TOY STORY 4 won Best Animated Feature and Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s (I’M GONNA) LOVE ME AGAIN from Rocketman was voted Best Original Song.