Ewan McGregor will attend Edinburgh screening of new film

The red carpet is to be rolled out for Ewan McGregor in Scotland next week for a gala screening of his first film as a director.

Ewan McGregor. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)

The Edinburgh International Film Festival has lined up a special screening of crime drama American Pastoral, which McGregor also stars in.

McGregor stars alongside Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning in the adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

He plays a father whose seemingly perfect life is torn apart when his teenage daughter goes into hiding after she is accused of an act of political terrorism in 1960s America.

The Filmhouse cinema will be playing host to the screening on Wednesday - 22 years after McGregor’s feature film debut Shallow Grave was shown at the festival.

Other gala premieres McGregor has turned out for since then include Velvet Goldmine, Young Adam, Perfect Sense and Last Days in the Desert. The latter premiere was accompanied by a question and answer session with his fans at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Mark Adams, artistic director of the film festival, said: “We are delighted to be working with Entertainment Film Distributors and Ewan McGregor on this special gala. Ewan is a great supporter of the festival, and talked with enthusiasm about making his directorial debut with the film when he was with us in 2015, so it is a real pleasure to welcome him and the film back to Edinburgh.”

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