Move proves a blockbuster success for film festival

Published on Friday 27 June 2008 22:04

SALES figures from the Edinburgh International Film Festival suggest its historic move to June has kept audiences healthy and sharply increased interest from the film industry.

Admissions to the festival, which wraps up tomorrow, were up 3 per cent on August last year, staff said. Box-office receipts were up 5 per cent. "Walk-in" sales may have risen as people did not have to plan around other festivals, it is thought.

Last year, the EIFF surprised Edinburgh's festival scene with the announcement that it was shifting from August after 61 years. The move was seen as a major gamble. But the enthusiastic backing of Sir Sean Connery, and celebrity appearances from Keira Knightley and Brian Cox, have launched the date change with a splash.

"I'm quite surprised. I'm thinking the June move was an even better move than I thought," the festival's artistic director, Hannah McGill, told The Scotsman.

"I didn't think anyone should expect the box office to rise. Obviously you are losing a million August tourists, so it seemed logical to me we shouldn't expect a crashing rise."

The festival, with extra funding from the UK Film Council, had aimed for a better place in the industry's calendar, exploiting a quieter time in the city and raising the profile of its premieres.

The film industry appears to have responded. The number of registered "delegates" at the festival rose from 575 to 800. The list of accredited press went from 518 to 618.

It was unclear yesterday how many delegates paid for their slots. They ranged from film festival bosses, from Adelaide and Seoul to Bradford and Berkshire, to major film distributors, production companies and talent agencies.

But there were more than 40 delegates from the Scottish film agency Scottish Screen, along with other UK film agencies, and many film students from Scotland and elsewhere.

The festival has had its highs and lows. Stone of Destiny, billed as an uplifting account of the theft in the 1950s of the Scottish coronation stone from Westminster Abbey, was dismissed as cringe-worthy by some critics. Although Edge of Love brought actresses Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller to Edinburgh, it did not set reviewers on fire.

However, Man on Wire, a documentary about a daring and illegal high-wire walk between New York City's World Trade Centre's twin towers in 1974, was leading the running for the festival's Audience Award yesterday.

Summer, about youthful love and tragedy, was hailed as a new departure for the actor Robert Carlyle, while in the Trailblazers section the short film The Problem With Pets – created by young Scottish film-makers – impressed.

Sir Sean Connery, the film festival's patron, was also a major presence this year, despite having suffered a fall that left him with his arm in a sling.