British screen idols of past and present, a biopic about Joan Jett featuring the star of Twilight, and 63 UK premieres will feature at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella in the Twilight movies, will portray Joan Jett in The Runaways, a movie about the rockers’ rise to fame, although it is understood she is unlikely to attend the festival, which runs from June 16 to 27.

America is well represented at the festival, with highlights including Robin Williams in World’s Greatest Dad, but one of the major themes is British films and stars.

Sir Patrick Stewart, best known for portraying Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, will be the subject of the Bafta Scotland interview, while the programme features more than 20 UK movies. A special retrospective of forgotten

British movies will include Gumshoe, featuring Albert Finney, Pulp, starring Michael Caine, and The Hard Way, with Patrick McGoohan.

There is also the offbeat animation Jackboots on Whitehall, with voices from Ewan McGregor and Richard E Grant; Mr Nice, about Welsh drug runner Howard Marks, starring Rhys Ifans as well as the new Scottish horror movie Outcast.

The programme also includes what could be a controversial Scottish film, A Spanking in Paradise, about saunas and gangsters in Edinburgh.

Hannah McGill, artistic director of the festival, said: “The British element is always important, but it is particularly strong this year.

“We have 21 new British films, before we even think about the short films and, of course, the retrospectives.

“What is particularly exciting this year, especially in a time of political change, is to take a snapshot of the UK industry and where the current industry has come from, where the history has built towards, where new film makers are at now, and where they go next.

“We are opening with an animation, and screening Toy Story 3, but we have some other really interesting animations.

“It’s a counter-intuitive thing, in this time of massive technical advances, we are still seduced by old-school ways of doing things, and The Illusionist [the new film from Sylvain Chomet] is fully traditional, hand drawn, and was worked on for years and years in Edinburgh. Then there is Jackboots on Whitehall, a complete one-off, stop motion, puppet animation – an alternative history of World War Two, where Churchill runs off to hide in Scotland. It’s very dark and very cheeky.”

The closing night gala film is Third Star, another British film by Hattie Dalton, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Burke in a “tragi-comic buddy film”.

There will also be a special gala to celebrate the 80th birthday of Sir Sean Connery, one of the festival’s patrons.

Other UK titles include Nick Moran’s The Kid, and SoulBoy, which features Scottish actor Martin Compston in a coming-of-age film set around the famous Wigan casino music scene, while its documentary sections features a number of UK productions including The People vs George Lucas, by Alexandre Philippe, about fan obsession with the Star Wars movies.

The festival’s key onstage interview will be with leading producer Graham King,

who won an Oscar for his work on Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.