Trainspotting and Sunshine on Leith producer to lead Edinburgh International Film Festival into new era

Andrew Macdonald will lead efforts to revive historic event’s fortunes

One of Scotland's leading movie producers is to lead efforts to restore the long-term fortunes of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Andrew Macdonald, whose credits include Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, Sunshine on Leith, The Beach and The Last King of Scotland, has been appointed chair of a new-look event which will be staged every August from 2024.

He has agreed to become an official EIFF figurehead after working behind the scenes on its revival and recovery of the festival since the financial collapse of its operator last autumn.

Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald and director Danny Boyle during filming of the adaptation of Irvine Welsh's debut novel on Princes Street. Picture: Film Edinburgh

The Glasgow-born producer will lead efforts to secure funding, put a board and senior team in place, and plot how the event will take shape from next summer and beyond.

A new company will be set up to run the EIFF, the world’s longest continually running celebration of cinema, which dates back to 1947.

Best-known for his collaborations with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, Macdonald met Shallow Grave screenwriter John Hodge at the EIFF in the early 1990s and made a video diary while he was working at the event about trying to raise money for the thriller, which got its world premiere at the festival in 1994.

Macdonald’s recruitment was overseen by Scottish Government agency Screen Scotland, which is expected to provide the EIFF’s initial core funding.

Andrew Macdonald has been appointed as the new chair of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

He was among the leading industry figures involved in a taskforce created to try to rescue the brand and heritage of the festival after the Centre for the Moving Image went into administration.

Talks on a new long-term EIFF vision went on for six months as a small team was put together to stage a one-off edition of the EIFF this summer as part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s programme.

The future EIFF blueprint, published in May when the recruitment drive for a chair began, said the aim was to revive the EIFF as a "must attend" industry event which also embraces its origins as “a festival of discovery.”

Macdonald said: “The Edinburgh International Film Festival played a huge part in my own early producing career.

“It’s held dear by filmmakers and audiences, and admired by so many around the world.

“Working together with fellow filmmakers, funders and festival experts on a proposition for the future of EIFF from 2024 has been altogether compelling and, in this new role, I’m looking forward to helping to build long-term success in the years to come.”

Isabel Davis, executive director of Screen Scotland, said: “That Andrew has agreed to be the chair of the new Edinburgh International Film Festival is a clear indication of the ambition we all share for its future.

“He was one of the first to offer support when the previous organisation collapsed and, with his customary vigour, Andrew has already been instrumental in bringing people together to build an exciting new vision for what the festival can become.

“Andrew’s internationally acclaimed body of work speaks for itself, and his long-standing relationship with Edinburgh and the EIFF, his entrepreneurial mindset and producer’s can-do attitude makes him ideal for this role.

"We’re grateful that he’s prepared to give his time and energy to this exciting, if huge, project and look forward to working with him as he builds the team that will take on the direct running of the festival for 2024 onwards.”