Interview: Hannah McGill, artistic director, Edinburgh International Film Festival

Published on Tuesday 8 December 2009 19:59

SHE'S the driving force behind the Edinburgh Film Festival and now her work has been recognised with a top award. Jackie Hunter meets a young woman who's firmly in the picture

WHATEVER Hannah McGill was expecting when she turned up to receive a gong at the Women in Film and Television Awards in London on Friday, it wasn't Dame Helen Mirren and an audience of 1,000 people applauding her.

"It was one of the most surreal moments of my life," McGill admits as we chat in the Filmhouse caf. "There was Jo Brand on stage making jokes about me, and Claudia Winkleman handing over my award!"

The prize that the artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) was there to accept – the Talkback Thames award for Emerging Talent – was, McGill says, "tremendously unexpected. Not least because I don't feel at all like an emerging talent, more like an ancient hack!"

Joking aside, the former film critic who has been at the helm of the EIFF since 2007, adds: "People who work for festivals don't normally get considered for awards. I have to admit – and it doesn't speak very well of me – that I hadn't actually heard of the organisation. I thought, 'Oh, that's nice, it'll just be a few people in a room.' Then I got there and realised it was… quite a big deal."

You might call Women in Film and Television (WFTV) a big deal: comprising some 10,000 members worldwide, it exists to support women in the film industry. Given that McGill is the very model of a modern festival director, however, doesn't the idea of a gender-specific awards scheme in 2009 strike her as quaint, if not downright archaic?

"Well, yes, I had always been a bit resistant to such things – 'you've achieved all this despite being a woman' – but this event was much more celebratory," says Shetland-born McGill, 33.

"But WFTV makes the point which I always make: this is not a man's industry, it's just that quite often the women in it work more behind the scenes. There have always been female producers, screenwriters, editors, studio heads and very powerful female stars who have driven their own careers. And just because most directors in America and the UK are male, that doesn't mean it's a male-dominated industry. My own staff is overwhelmingly female, and our audience is more than 50 per cent female as well.

"The WFTV chairwoman (April Chamberlain( is Scotland-based and the chief executive (Kate Kinninmont] is from Glasgow. I commented, 'There seem to be an awful lot of Scottish accents here' and was told, 'Yes, we're trying to get a monopoly going!'

"What I really loved was that the event was emphasising the fact that plenty of women have status in this industry. I felt honoured, touched and surprised. What they do is really impressive, looking to the people behind the scenes."

Midway between her third and fourth festivals, work for McGill is still very much behind the scenes. "At the moment we're planning and streamlining our systems – an endless process for us. There's a huge list of potential films and events to look at that we'll hone over the next few months, then we'll start inviting filmmakers in January. It's just building up till it all starts to go crazy and that usually happens straight after Christmas when I go to other festivals and start talking to producers."

It's also a good time to measure the impact of this year's programme. Duncan Jones's Moon, winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film at EIFF, won two awards at the British Independent Film Awards in London on Sunday, while Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold and starring newcomer Katie Jarvis, "has gone on to win prizes everywhere," McGill says proudly. "Both those films had their UK premiere at EIFF."

More immediately, McGill is enthusing about yesterday's announcement of the 2010 Edinburgh Schools Film Competition, and looking forward to giving a talk at the Filmhouse tonight as part of the Edinburgh Lectures series, entitled Creating Scotland on Film.

"They asked me what I wanted to talk about and we agreed that an interesting approach would be to do with national identity and film, especially because of the shift to Creative Scotland, the economic situation, next year's general election and so much being in flux right now.

"Being in a small country that has been dominated by a larger culture nearby, we nurture the view that every film, novel and TV programme that comes out here is a definitive statement about who we are. But the Americans don't think like that; they just put out their films, some of which say something about America, some of which don't, but the assumption is that the message is always international. That's the way to approach it; it's important to remind people that we're not as beleaguered as we think we are."

It's a typically assertive statement from a woman whose favourite film is The Red Shoes, in which the passionate heroine declares that she exists only to dance. You'd have to rise very early to catch McGill off her toes, too, I suspect. "There's nothing worse for creativity than complacency," says McGill, whose auburn hair, blue eyes and scarlet lipstick evoke the Scottish ballerina, Moira Shearer, in that film.

It's a view that must have been largely shaped in her current job. "I haven't yet had a straightforward year. My first year was my first year, trying to learn the ropes, then the second year we moved the festival to June. The third year" – she pauses – "unfortunately, I thought I'd be leaving that festival because I was pregnant. And then I lost my baby. So I haven't had a normal year and this is the closest I've come to having a full run at it. But now we're in an economic crisis, which has made everything even harder!"

McGill's determination to deliver an inclusive and entertaining festival takes its toll on her life away from work, but that's clearly what drives her. "That's one of the problems, being able to sustain a stable domestic existence," she says. "You need to be with someone who's either extremely tolerant or who doesn't need to see you that often!"

Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. "I'll have to have some difficult conversations about budgets and prioritise exactly what's important, but if you cut back on some of the 'first-class-travel-from-Los-Angeles types', and support more those who are new to the festival circuit and just thrilled to be here, then you can work things in a slightly different way," she says. "I don't believe in private jets, full stop – environmentally and financially it's crazy. I'll get into trouble for saying so, but I just think it's immoral."

She admits, though, that the celebrity element remains important. "If you have a high-profile first night, the whole of the festival is elevated, because everybody's watching and the audience feel engaged in something at a high level.

"Even if we are positioning ourselves more towards discovery, it's good to have shiny talent on the opening night. Some celebrities are awfully expensive, though!" She remains tight-lipped about the priciest stars, but we may assume that the likes of Keira Knightley, Alan Cumming and Sir Sean Connery don't come cheap.

"Recession is proving positive for us, in a funny way," she adds, "because filmmakers are looking at strategies for how they launch films. That's a shift happening across the board. The whole industry is reassessing its priorities in terms of what talent is worth. A lot of studios are saying: "We either have the special effects and the huge marketing campaign, or we pay for Nicole Kidman."

Film marketing and distribution is an area where shrinking budgets and improving technology have opened up new avenues for smaller filmmakers, McGill says. "You can stage your premiere at a film festival, but you don't have to sell your soul to some huge corporation because you can self-distribute on the internet. And a genuine online buzz is more powerful now than a big marketing budget. Look at hits like Paranormal Activity, which was made for relatively little and has no (big-name] stars. Yes, there was a degree of studio backing, but it was mostly bloggers spreading the word."

Despite the year-round networking, McGill's enthusiasm is still buoyant. "That's what's really exhausting about the job – being 'on' all the time, not watching and choosing films. I always say the festival is like two weeks of performing for me, and then at the end of it I just collapse."

And even though she calls Sean Connery and Tilda Swinton friends, she still admits to having been totally star-struck when she saw Dame Helen Mirren in the flesh last week, and when she met childhood hero Nicolas Roeg chairing a film festival jury on which she sat recently, which is surely a good sign. But for how long will the girl stay in the picture at EIFF?

"I tend to think that people shouldn't stay in jobs like mine for too long. It's important that there's new blood and a fresh vision every now and again," she says, a little guardedly, then laughs and adds: "I've got a fairly short attention span and I don't ever make long-term plans – about anything!'

&#149 Hannah McGill's lecture, Creating Scotland on Film, is tonight at 6:30pm at the Filmhouse, Lothian Road, Edinburgh. Tickets are 3, contact the box office on 0131 228 2688. For further details see www.edinburghlectures.org