GLASGOW'S annual film festival attracts more film-lovers to its doors than the Edinburgh International Film Festival, new figures show.
This year’s EIFF, now in its 65th year, will be launched next week with a radical new programme featuring fewer premieres than before, no red carpet occasions and a new emphasis on events discussing films and ideas.
But going by new figures, it will have to be a roaring success this year to catch up with Glasgow’s film festival, which has been staged since 2005 and now attracts almost twice as many film fans.
Edinburgh’s film festival last year attracted 5525 attendees, according to the Edinburgh Festivals Impact Study, published by BOP Consulting.
This compares to the 9474 “unique visitors” recorded by the Glasgow Film Festival’s consultants EKOS for this year’s February event.
Glasgow’s festival had lower attendance figures than Edinburgh, with 34,180 tickets sold compared to the EIFF’s 44,456.
Glasgow Film Festival runs annually each February, presenting a programme of feature films, shorts, and special events, while Edinburgh’s film festival was moved to June three years ago, away from its long-held slot in the traditional August festival period.
This year the Glasgow festival featured premieres such as The Eagle, directed by Kevin MacDonald, and You Instead, by David Mackenzie.
Allison Gardner, director of the GFF, said the attendance figures were “brilliant, and show that we are doing the right thing for audiences with an accessible programme”.
However, she said the GFF was not in direct competition with Edinburgh and she considers them very different festivals.
“We are not in competition with Edinburgh and I think we do a different job to them. What we are is a festival for people who do not go to film festivals: most people cannot go to festivals like Cannes but we do and we can bring films back for people to see,” she said.
“Edinburgh does a different job to us, they have the whole film industry side of things that we just do not do. Scotland is very lucky to have two great film festivals.”
Glasgow Film Festival increased its attendance figures for the fifth consecutive year.
The EIFF has the second-lowest attendance figures of all the Edinburgh festivals, according to the Impact Study.
The Storytelling Festival attracted 2762 people, while, perhaps predictably, much larger figures were recorded by the Fringe (293,797), the Tattoo (218,643), and International Festival (269,991).
In contrast to the Glasgow festival, the EIFF appears to be experiencing an uncertain period in the first year of its new director, James Mullighan.
It has 62 premieres, as opposed to 106 last year, and the EIFF is now without a significant source of funding -- a £1.9m three-year funding commitment from the UK Film Council has now ended.
Yesterday it was confirmed that Ewan McGregor would be attending the premiere of Perfect Sense, and Kim Cattrall will be promoting her movie Meet Monica Velour.
The band Kings of Leon will also attend the festival to talk about a new documentary about their rise to fame, Talihina Sky.
The opening film of the festival, which will not be a traditional red carpet affair, will be The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.
Other premieres will include Albatross, with Julia Ormond, The Bang Bang Club, starring Ryan Phillippe, Page Eight, starring Bill Nighy and Rachel Weisz, and Jack Goes Boating, which is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut.
Instead of premieres there are many events aimed at involving the public in discussions on film music, a “pop-up film school”, a celebration of short films, science and film, soundtracks, and other experimental events.
There will be outdoor screenings at St Andrew Square, a bike-driven mobile cinema, and an interpretation of favourite movies by The Streets star Mike Skinner.
Gavin Miller, CEO of the Centre for the Moving Image, which runs the Edinburgh International Film Festival, said: “As the world’s longest continually running film festival we have a proud heritage in both the global film industry and in attracting new audiences.
“Our friends over in Glasgow have done a wonderful job at encouraging more people to discover film and this year we have taken a bold new approach in reinventing the festival for modern audiences. Our ambition is to redefine a film festival for the 21st century, whilst retaining our cultural heritage.”
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