Screen Scotland has announced that it has purchased the intellectual property rights to the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 

The national body that drives the development of the Scottish film and TV industry has acquired the rights from administrators for the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), the charity that previously ran the festival.

The rights, including the festival’s domain name and brand assets, will be provided “as appropriate to a future operator of the festival”, Screen Scotland confirmed.

In a statement released on Thursday, the national body said that an options appraisal for a film festival in Edinburgh in 2023 is “underway”. 

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The appraisal is being led by Kristy Matheson, who was Creative Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2022, and colleagues. They will be supported by the Edinburgh International Festival. 

The work is being funded with an award of up to £97,647 from Creative Scotland, which is being drawn from the 2022/23 Regular Funding Awards originally allocated to the CMI.

Screen Scotland said it anticipated that the options appraisal will be completed by the end of January, 2023, and further announcements will be made after that time.

Commenting on the sale of the intellectual property rights of The Edinburgh International Film Festival, Chad Griffin, joint administrator and partner with FRP Advisory said: “We are delighted to have secured a sale of the Edinburgh International Film Festival IP to Creative Scotland.

"Screen Scotland sits within Creative Scotland and is well placed to take forward the development of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which is a crucial part of Edinburgh’s cultural programming.

“We are also pleased to announce that following an extensive marketing process for the Filmhouse building on Lothian Road in Edinburgh a closing date for offers has now been set for 7th December 2022.”

The CMI entered administration back in October, and said at the time it was "facing the perfect storm of sharply rising costs, in particular energy costs, alongside reduced trade due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis."

The shock news came just months after the CMI lodged a planning application for a new nine-story £60m building in Edinburgh.

Since the closure of the CMI, incorporating the Edinburgh Filmhouse, the Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Screen Scotland has been in discussions with administrators and other partners to explore options for cultural cinema programme activity in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as well as the possibility of a 2023 edition of Edinburgh’s film festival.

The Film Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary in August, returning to a fully in-person event for the first time since the pandemic. It is the world's oldest continually running film festival.