Tilda Swinton Parting EIFF Was "Misreported" Says Film Fest Director

Edinburgh Film Festival director James Mullighan has rebutted recent media reports suggesting Mark Cousins, Linda Myles, and Tilda Swinton have "parted company" with the film festival and that the festival is running months behind schedule. 

Mullighan writes in his blog post that the trio led by Cousins, merely provided a "blueprint" of ideas, which the EIFF are using as a foundation for this year's "radical new approach".

The EIFF director says that the trio were involved "to varying degrees in an advisory capacity".

Mullighan writes: "It was never planned for them to be involved in the ongoing running of the Festival, as has been misreported in some media, nor were they ever appointed as curators which we attempted to make clear on several occasions."

Swinton herself, a patron of the EIFF, has also said that they never "parted company" because “we were never - in fact - officially engaged with them.” The three offered their support on a voluntary basis.

The festival has so far announced eight guest curators: Isabella Rossellini, Gus Van Sant, Alan Warner, Mike Skinner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Clint Mansell, and Greil Marcus.

Although they will each be programming parts of the festival, the curators will not necessarily be attending the festival in person.

Mullighan also responds in his recent blog post to reports that the festival has "lost its way" and is falling behind: "This is a year of change: it is taking time".

He adds later: "We are excited and confident about delivering a Festival that promises to be a fresh, invigorated celebration of film in the city of Edinburgh in a few months time."