Chris Menges, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of The Mission and The Killing Fields will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, opening on the 20th June, at an "In-Person" conversation with cinematographer Seamus McGarvey.
The event with Menges, who also worked on Extrememly Loud & Incredibly Close, The Reader, and Notes On A Scandal, is in addition to In Person events with actor Robert Carlyle and Chinese documentary maker Wang Bing. A previously programmed In Person event with maverick director Victor Kossakovsky has been cancelled.
Other industry events involving filmmakers with premieres at the EIFF include James Marsh and Tom Bradby (Shadow Dancer) who will discuss the writer/director relationship.
Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio) will be talking about the use of sound design and music to enhance audience’s cinematic experience.
Former EIFF artistic director Mark Cousins, whose documentary What Is This Film Called Love? is showing at the EIFF this year, will discuss the thoughts and emotions evoked by certain imagery in A Thousand Pictures to the Eye: Images, Emotions, and the Movies.
Meanwhile, Khavn De La Cruz (Philippine New Wave: This Is Not A Film Movement") examines the Philippine cinema and art scene.
Debut directors workshops
The strong presence of first feature films at this year's EIFF will be reflected in case studies on first features Shell and Microwave’s Borrowed Time (with Microwave writer/director Jules Bishop and producer Olivier Kaempfer).
The festival will also look at moving from first to second features with speakers including Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) and Nick Whitfield (Skeletons) in First Feature and Beyond.
Fancy a Danish
The Danish Film Institute, in partnership with the EIFF Industry team, will discuss a number of Danish documentaries featured in the EIFF programme.
Producers Peter Engel (The Ambassador) and Helle Faber (Au Pair; Putin's Kiss) will examine the Danish documentary landscape and their successful co-producing experiences in the Danish Documentary Focus.
Funding agencies
While the Edinburgh Film Festival is strictly speaking not a market like other film festivals, it still attracts around 1200 industry delegates, with financing as well as the art and craft of filmmaking firmly on the agenda.
The BFI will be running a Meet The Funders Panel with representatives from Creative England, Creative Scotland, Film Agency for Wales, Screen Yorkshire and others, advising on the funds they offer and what they look for in projects and talents.
The BFI are also hosting the BFI Film Fund Short Filmmakers Breakfast, where filmmakers meet people from the BFI and other funding organisations face to face.
Creative England’s panel event Small Budgets, Big Talents will reflect upon how some of the brightest new filmmakers in recent years have kick started their careers with low budget films.
As well as supporting the case study of Microwave, Film London will be hosting Low Budget on Trial to debate various topics affecting emerging filmmakers today.
Film Export UK, together with Film London and with support from Creative Skillset, will present Market Place Live, an opportunity to introduce new filmmakers to the concept of the Independent Film Value Chain.
Creative Scotland will be supporting daily networking events with a wide selection of partners including BAFTA, Scottish Locations Network, ScreenHi, Scottish Documentary Institute, Playwrights’ Studio, Birds Eye View and Women in Film and Television.
Talent Development Initiatives
The EIFF will also be running four Talent Development initiatives throughout the Festival:.
A Sound Lab & Composers Lab will introduce eight emerging composers to industry composers including John Lunn (Unconditional; Downtown Abbey), Joris de Man (Killzone), Nina Humphreys (All the Small Things; Murder), Dickon Hinchliffe (Shadow Dancer; WInter's Bone) and Julian Nott (Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit).
Savalas, one of the UK's leading sound post-production facilities, will offer a new Sound Lab for Emerging Sound Designers exploring feature film sound design from beginning to end.
Network, an online development and mentoring programme, will help screenwriters, directors and producers, individually and in teams, in networking.
Thirty emerging directors, producers and screenwriters will be participating in EIFF Talent Lab sessions over four days of the festival, learning with industry professionals through workshops, roundtables, and meetings.