Red carpet premieres back on bill for Edinburgh International Film Festival

RED carpet premieres and awards will be back on the bill for the Edinburgh International Film Festival, its new artistic director Chris Fujiwara has confirmed.

Speaking publicly for the first time about his vision for the festival, Mr Fujiwara said that he would not shy away from holding the celebrity gala openings that were scrapped last year.

“Depending on the films we are going to bring and depending on the availability of the stars, we will be more than happy to roll out all appropriate courtesy in the form of a red carpet, or whatever, to make those stars happy,” he said.

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Mr Fujiwara said such events were important in attracting publicity, but insisted that the festival would remain focused “on the films themselves”

He said: “For a film festival of this scale, it certainly helps because that’s part of what you guys [the media] will be writing about, so that’s one reason why we’re focusing on it, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re getting away from an artistic focus or focus on the films themselves, which of course is the main thing.

“Everything is there to support the films.”

He said his “biggest challenge” for the festival would be building the programme of movies, adding that he expected to include between 120 and 150 features, the majority of which would be UK premieres.

When asked about whether the festival had enough funding to do justice to his vision, Mr Fujiwara said that organisers were still seeking sponsorship.

“Any programme is to some extent constrained by its budget,” he said.

“You work within the budget that you have. Our budget is not yet fixed, we’re still working, we’re still in discussion with public funders and with existing or potential sponsors, so we hope to have a comfortable budget to put on the programme that we would like to do.” He also said the festival organisers were “willing to talk to appropriate, interested sponsors”.

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Last year’s festival was intended to reshape its future, with the decision to scrap long- running awards, ban red carpet premieres and axe VIP parties. But in the event the festival saw a dramatic slump at the box office and criticism over the sparse programme.

Mr Fujiwara said that he would be treating 2012 as a “clean slate” and not be focusing on the past. “It’s hard for me to address that [the past], and I don’t know how helpful it is for me to address that,” he said.

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“Coming here, I have the greatest opportunity to have a clean slate – I’m told that I can do the kind of festival I want to do.

“So I haven’t been too concerned about 2011; I’ve looked at reports, I’ve looked at the catalogue, I know more or less what went on, but I’m more concerned with my own festival.

“I’m not really thinking in terms of difference, the difference between this year and last year, or two years ago – it’s not something I’m getting bogged down in.”

He added that having visited other film events around the world as part of building this year’s festival programme, his perception was that Edinburgh still had an international reputation as an important festival.

When asked if he was still working in a “damage limitation” role in relation to the previous year’s problems or was now “bridge-building” for the forthcoming festival, he answered simply: “Bridge-building”.

Mr Fujiwara has been working directly with festival staff for several weeks, and changes have already been put in place, with the reintroduction of the prestigious Michael Powell Award.

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However, the artistic director confirmed yesterday that the contentious decision in 2008 to move the festival from August to June would not be revisited, as it suited the industry to keep the event separate from the other festivals.

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