Bird's Eye View

EIFF Programme Announced with a Top-Class Line-Up of Women Filmmakers!

EIFF 2010 16th-27th June

The Edinburgh International Film Festival programme was announced yesterday, and under the directorship of Hannah McGill and her team of programmers, it’s a magnificent year for women filmmakers! Where Cannes tripped up in its relatively weak showcase of work by women, almost half of Edinburgh’s Documentary section and a third of its Rosebud strand of first and second films are by women directors from around the world, which brings a huge amount of optimism for the future of cinema.

Hot-off-the-press breaking news is that this year’s Closing Night Gala will be the world premiere of

Hattie Dalton and Rachel at BEVFF 2009

THIRD STAR, by soon-to-be-legendary Brit Hattie Dalton. BEV brought Hattie to your attention at our 2005 and 2009 festivals with her shorts, the BAFTA-winning The Banker, and One Of Those Days. Hattie then praised BEV as being “a beacon of light in an otherwise fairly depressing, male orientated industry”. We spotted Hattie’s quality 5 years ago and brought her on the press train with us as a spokesperson for women directors. She continued with her vision and passion and her first feature has now been selected as the Closing Gala of the one of the world’s longest-running and most critically-watched film festivals – a tremendous success – congratulations Hattie!

The Runaways Film Poster

Some of our favourite women to watch in Edinburgh this year include Morag McKinnon with her highly anticipated debut feature DONKEYS , Floria Sigismondi‘s rock-band biopic THE RUNAWAYS, starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, Indian/Afghani Nelofar Pazira whose ACT OF DISHONOUR explores a combustible meeting point of an Afghan village and a film crew, US thriller WINTERS BONE by Debra Granik ; Lea Fehner‘s French prison drama SILENT VOICES, SOUL BOY : one boy, one mission, one hour in Nairobi seen through the lens of Ghanaian-Kenyan director Hawa Essuman and Diane Bell with her beautifully crafted ode to optimism, the obsolete and love, OBSELIDIA.

Lucky for BEV, we will be chatting to some of these splendid women in Edinburgh on our panel discussion ‘The Bigelow Effect?’ on Saturday 19th June – to be announced soon – and don’t forget that BEV’s popular Pitch and Connect on Monday 21 June is open to all EIFF delegates – but you must register via the Film Festival office. We hope to see you there too!

All in all, Edinburgh is presenting nine world or international fiction feature premieres by women:

ACT OF DISHONOUR, Dir Nelofar Pazira
THE CRAB, Dir Rona Mark
DONKEYS, Dir Morag McKinnon
THE EXTRA MAN, Dir Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
OBSELIDIA, Dir Diane Bell
THE RED MACHINE, Dir Stephanie Argy & Alec Boehm
THIRD STAR, Dir Hattie Dalton

And the UK premieres of:

A REAL LIFE, Dir Sarah Leonor
FOG, Dir Kit Hui
FOXES, Dir Mira Fornay
MUNDANE HISTORY, Dir Anocha Suwichakornpong
NOTHING PERSONAL Dir Urzsula Antoniak
PEEPLI LIVE Dir Anusha Rizvi
SILENT VOICES, Dir Lea Fehner
VITAL SIGNS, Dir Sophie Deraspe
WINTERS BONE Dir Debra Granik

Edinburgh’s Documentary strand is as ever, astoundingly rich, with world premieres of Corinne van der Borch’s Chelsea Hotel dweller GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS and cricket focus OUT OF THE ASHES by Lucy Martens, Leslie Knott and Timothy Albone, and UK premieres of Laura Poitras’ study of Osama Bin Laden’s previous bodyguard in THE OATH; Jennifer Arnold’s pursuit of a Kenyan boy’s life story A SMALL ACT, ; NYC in the 80s BLANK CITY by Celine Danhier; Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont’s Glenn Gould portrait GENIUS WITHIN; and Brit Amy Hardie’s fascinating semi-scientific investigation THE EDGE OF DREAMING.

There are eight stunning UK short films by women to watch: Susanna Wallin (previously at BEV!), Leanne Welham, Kristen Kearse and Nicky Lianos all in the UK Shorts 1 programme.  Marianne Elliott, Loren Slater, Emma Sullivan in the UK Shorts 2 Programme and Kate Burton, plus another eight by international names Hannah Hilliard, Ursula Ulmi, Lucia Morgan, Anna Gaskell, Miranda Notion, Halina Dyrschka,  Carolina Giammetta in the Family Shorts Programme and Joyce A. Nashawati in International Shorts 2: Little Earthquakes.  In the animation shorts showcases, we congratulate Brit animators Jessica Cope, Elena Pomares, Jana Prchalova, Emma Lazenby, Victoria Mather and Petra Freeman (whose Tad’s Nest was in BEV2010), Karn David, Sarah Wickens, and Magdalena Osiska.

Full EIFF festival programme and information is at www.edfilmfest.org.uk