Edinburgh Film Fest Boss Paul Ridd on Resurrecting the Shuttered Event and Creating a ‘Discovery Festival’ for New Talent
variety.comAlex Ritman Less than two years ago, it looked like the Edinburgh International Film Festival — the world’s oldest continually running film festival — was no more.
In October 2022, just two months after its 75th edition, its organizer Centre for the Moving Image went into administration, while its main venue the Filmhouse cinema closed its doors under pressure from rising costs and reduced trade in the wake of the pandemic.
Just a few months later, creative director Kristy Matheson fled south to head up the BFI London Film Festival. All was — seemingly — lost.
But life was quickly breathed back into the festival’s aged bones. First came a one-off iteration in August 2023 backed by local body Screen Scotland, which then hired “Trainspotting” producer and frequent Alex Garland collaborator Andrew Macdonald to lead a new company to pick up the pieces and start afresh.
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