David Farnor | On 11, Jun 2020

Edinburgh International Film Festival is teaming up with Curzon Home Cinema for an online festival this summer.

About now, the 74th edition of the Scottish capital’s film festival should be kicking off, but with the coronavirus lockdown still keeping cinemas closed, the EIFF has instead become the latest film festival to go online with a digital edition of the event.

Spanning 12 days, the festival will serve as a preview of upcoming film releases, with titles from Peccadillo Pictures, Vertigo Releasing, Curzon Artificial Eye and more. It will combine these with live online Q&As featuring the filmmakers, with talent featured in the festival including Jennifer Baichwal, Marco Bellocchio, Ron Howard, the Dardenne brothers, Tilda Swinton, Alicia Vikander and Maxine Peake.

Rod White, Director of Programming said in a statement: “We can’t bring you the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year quite as and when you know it, but we are finding ways to adapt and to share our passion for films through new initiatives. We want to give our industry something to get excited about whilst all UK cinemas are closed, and get the cinema-going public excited about what films are in store for them in cinemas when we return.”

The festival will begin on 24th June and run until 5th July. At least one new film will be streamed each day throughout the festival, with films available to watch for between 2 and 12 days, many of them until the end of the festival’s run. Each film will cost £9.99 and will only be available to watch in the UK.

Here’s the full line-up:

Fanny Lye Deliver’d – 24th June

Set on an isolated farm in Shropshire in 1657. The story of Fanny Lye, a woman who learns to transcend her oppressive marriage and discover a new world of possibility – albeit at great personal cost. Living a life of Puritan stricture with husband John and young son Arthur, Fanny Lye’s world is shaken to its core by the unexpected arrival of two strangers in need, a young couple closely pursued by a ruthless sheriff and his deputy. Directed by Thomas Clay. Starring Maxine Peake, Charles Dance.

Read our review

Available until 5th July.

Q&A: 29th June

A Q&A with director Thomas Clay and the cast of Fanny Lye Deliver’d will take place at 8.30pm.

Clemency – 24th June

Written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu and starring Alfre Woodard. This award-winning feature focuses on a prison warden Bernadine Williams who confronts the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is now sanctioned to kill. Chinonye first had the idea for Clemency after Troy Davis’ execution in a state prison in 2011 and spent 4 years researching for the film.

Available until 5th July.

Saint Frances – 25th June

Bridget, 34, aimless and accidentally pregnant, decides to have an abortion. Needing a job, she gets one (by luck rather than design) she’s not really very well suited to, that of nanny, to the precocious Frances. Directed by Alex Thompson. Starring Kelly O’Sullivan, Charin Alvarez, Braden Crothers.

Available until 27th June.

Young Ahmed – 25th June

Directed and written by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. After taking to heart an extremist interpretation of the Qu’ran, a Belgian teenager hatches a plan to kill his teacher. [English subtitles]

Available until 2nd July.

Q&A: 27th June

A live captioned Masterclass with Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne at 4pm, who share the expert advice forged over 40 years of award-winning films.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch – 25th June

Stunning documentary, filmed in 20 countries across 6 continents, documenting the impact the human race has had on Planet Earth and illuminating the question: have we entered a new geological epoch? Directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky. Starring Alicia Vikander.

Available until 5th July.

Volcano – 26th June

Lukas, a translator working for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) gets stranded in the middle of nowhere in southern Ukraine. Life, and the people, are nothing like Lukas has ever imagined before, and getting out of there is his only priority. But warming to his strange new hosts, perhaps there’s more going on here than meets the eye. Directed by Roman Bondarchuk. Starring Viktor Zhdanov, Serhiy Stepansky.

Available until 5th July.

A White, White Day – 27th June

A recently retired policeman becomes obsessed that his recently-deceased wife was having an affair. His growing obsession starts to threaten the well-being of the rest of his family. Directed by Hylnur Palmason. Starring Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ida Mekkin Hlynsdottir.

Available until 29th June.

Q&A: 28th June

A live captioned Q&A with director Hlynur Palmason at 8.30pm.

The Traitor – 28th June

Directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Pierfrancesco Favino. A masterful telling of the real-life story of Tommaso Buscetta, the main informant in the ‘Maxi’ (Sicilian Mafia) Trial in Palermo in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. [English subtitles]

Available until 5th July.

Rebuilding Paradise – 29th June

The UK premiere of the moving documentary, by Hollywood director Ron Howard, that chronicles the post-fire lives of the residents of Paradise, California, which was 95% razed to the ground by the so-called ‘Camp Fire’ of November 2018.

Available until 5th July.

 

White Riot – 26th June

Rubika Shah’s energising film charts a vital London protest movement. Rock Against Racism (RAR) was formed in 1976, prompted by ‘music’s biggest colonialist’ Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation’s youth, RAR’s multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978’s huge antifascist carnival in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and of course The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR’s message to the masses.

Available until 5th July.

Q&A: 26th June – 8pm

A live Q&A in association with Glastonbury, hosted by Jamz Supernova (Radio 1Xtra), with director Rubika Shah, Julien Temple and Billy Bragg on Facebook here.

Perfumes – 1st July

A once-famous ‘nez’ (in the perfume world) sells her extraordinary olfactory facility to any company that’s prepared to pay for it. She’s a selfish diva, but one that might just have a shot at redemption through her relationship with her new chauffeur, a man with many troubles of his own. Directed by Grégory Magne. Starring Gustave Kervern, Emmanuelle Devos, Sergi López.

Available until 2nd July.

Little Girl – 2nd July

Sasha, 7, a little girl living in the Northeast of France, was assigned male at birth. The film details, with extraordinary sensitivity, Sasha and her very supportive family’s seemingly endless quest for her to be recognised as a girl by the school she loves. Directed by Sebastien Lifshitz.

Available until 4th July.

Capital in the 21st Century – 3rd July

Directed by Justin Pemberton and based on the best-selling and one of the most powerful books of our time, written by French economist Thomas Piketty. This UK premiere is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, shining a new light on the world around us and its growing inequalities.

Available until 5th July.

Last and First Men – 3rd July

Directed by Jóhann Jóhannsson and narrated by Tilda Swinton. The UK premiere of the late, great composer’s directorial debut, a stunning audio-visual, science-fiction essay on human mortality and the end of all things. Loosely based on the 1930 Olaf Stapledon novel of the same name, Tilda Swinton voices a human from its 18th distinct evolution from some two billion years in the future (the Last Men), reaching back to the First Men (us) for help, as the end of time approaches.

Available until 5th July.

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