Festival director wants to keep dazzling Edinburgh

Senior Feature Writer & Food Writer

Monday 2 July 2012

HE is credited with restoring red-carpet glamour to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, culminating in a star-studded UK premiere of the blockbuster animation Brave.

STAR TURN: Kelly Macdonald, who provided the voice for the heroine of Brave, was among the big names who appeared at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.

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Cate Devine

As the last of the champagne bottles were cleared away after the Disney-Pixar movie closed the festival, artistic director Chris Fujiwara revealed he hopes to stay on after his contract expires in September.

The film critic, author and lecturer, who took over the ailing festival last year with a reduced budget reported to be in the region of £1.5m, told The Herald: "I very much want to stay.

"I expect to be discussing the question of whether it will be renewed very soon – hopefully sooner rather than later, so I can start working on next year's programme, securing the right film-makers and distributors, and moving our plans for the festival forward to showcase Brazil, India and Russia."In the short time I've been in Edinburgh I've been made to feel very welcome. It's a beautiful and very cultured city, which is important for an event like this."The fact that I've been able to do the programme I wanted to do is encouraging."Mr Fujiwara is credited with restoring a sense of occasion to the film festival, which last year dropped the red carpet because it was "boring" and "stale". The high-profile opener on June 20, William Friedkin's darkly comic Killer Joe, starring Matthew McConaughey, was attended by Friedkin and star Gina Gershon, along with actors Jim Broadbent and Elliott Gould – the chairmen of the festival's two awards juries – DJ and presenter Edith Bowman, actors Kate Dickie and Brian Cox, comedians Dylan Moran and Craig Hill, and novelist Ian Rankin. The UK premiere of Brave, which is set in the Scottish Highlands, was attended by co-stars Kelly Macdonald, Craig Ferguson, Kevin McKidd and Robbie Coltrane at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.Actor Robert Carlyle missed his festival masterclass earlier in the schedule due to a nose operation. However, the star recovered to attend the screening on Thursday of his new film, California Solo, in which he plays an ageing Britpop star, and paid tribute to the festival for putting it on.Mr Fujiwara said: "The gala premieres went like a firecracker. The excitement of seeing the stars on it is part of what the red carpet is for. "It dresses up the space and the street and the theatre, and makes the event special. It's good for cinema to have that glamour."The decision to move the EIFF from August to June last year hit ticket sales, with 34,464 sold in 2011 compared to 44,456 in 2010. The final number of tickets sold for this year's 12-day festival has not yet been released, but Mr Fujiwara says early indications are positive. Asked whether his festival should be judged on ticket sales alone, he replied: "The Edinburgh International Film Festival should be judged on the responses of the film press, the critics and journalists; the responses of the audiences as told through social media and blogs and comments on our website. "I take my title seriously. As artistic director I'm expected to have an artistic vision for the sector and a properly curated programme. Feedback suggests that I have delivered that. That makes me very pleased and happy with the programme I put together."It was good for us to have high-profile names such as Jim Broadbent to head the jury for the prestigious Michael Powell prize for Best British Feature Film and Elliot Gould on the International jury. Both were very complimentary of the programme." On his appointment last September, Mr Fujiwara, a New Yorker who lives in Japan, said he wanted to focus on "independent world cinema" and on retrospectives, and to bring filmmakers to Edinburgh. Mr Fujiwara said he was open to the possibility of moving back into the main festival month of August. However, he has pointed out that the budget for this year's event was "very restrictive" and said further resources were needed urgently.l Brave was last night knocked off the top spot at the US box office by Ted, a comedy about a foul-mouthed teddy bear. The Disney-Pixar animation was the third-biggest movie last week.

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Festival director wants to keep dazzling Edinburgh

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