Animation – the big draw for Edinburgh International Film Festival

IT WAS a labour of love for more than four years for the Oscar-nominated animator who chose Scotland's capital to inspire his new film.

• Arthur's Seat is beautifully animated in a 1950s setting. Picture: Complimentary

Now Sylvain Chomet, the Frenchman who has masterminded Scotland's biggest movie production ever, is set to see it take pride of place as the opener of Edinburgh's annual film festival in June.

The Illusionist – mostly set in 1950s Scotland – will become the first film to get the red-carpet treatment at the event's flagship new venue for galas, the Festival Theatre.

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Hannah McGill, the festival's artistic director, said the film would make "a terrific opening night that will draw the eyes of the world and showcase Scotland as the perfect stage for international cultural events".

The Illusionist is about an old-fashioned music hall entertainer struggling to survive in the fading days of vaudeville, who quits Paris for first London, and then Edinburgh. Chomet adapted an unproduced screenplay by the late Gallic comic writer Jacques Tati, but moved most of the story from Prague to Scotland.

It sees the likes of Arthur's Seat, Jenners and Waverley Station beautifully animated in old-style 2D, as well as the islands of Mull and Iona.

More than 70 animators worked on the film inside a studio complex created by Chomet – the creator of the hit movie Belleville Rendez-vous – in George Street.

The director, who will be attending the premiere in Edinburgh, moved to Scotland shortly after visiting the city for the UK premiere of Belleville Rendez-Vous, which earned him an Oscar nomination, living in North Berwick with his wife Sally.

Speaking to The Scotsman from his home in the south of France, which he recently moved back to, Chomet said he was particularly excited to be staging the premiere at the Festival Theatre. "It's the old Empire Palace Theatre, where the great illusionist, Lafayette, famously died when it went on fire while he was on stage (in 1911)," said Chomet.

"He was one of the greatest entertainers of his day, along with Houdini, so it's brilliant that the film will be opening the festival there,"added Chomet. "I couldn't ask for more than that. It's great to be coming back again so soon after we moved back to France.

"Things have now come full circle since I first came to the festival in Edinburgh, and I'm very excited about the premiere in Edinburgh."

The Illusionist was given its world premiere in Berlin earlier this year. This is the fourth successive year that the film festival has not opened with a brand new movie.

The full festival line-up will be unveiled on 1 June.