CANADIAN director David Cronenberg will feature in the celebrity bill at the Drambuie Edinburgh Film Festival, it was announced last night.

The controversial movie-maker will present a scene-by-scene on his latest venture, a film called Crash, based on the J.G Ballard novel of the same name and described by festival director Mark Cousins as ``the best and boldest film of the year''.

Jeremy Thomas, producer of Crash and a member of the festival's board, secured exclusive permission from the film's international distributor for these extracts to be shown.

Cronenberg joins Bernardo Bertolucci, Peter Greenaway, Jarvis Cocker, and a host of other guests at the annual extravaganza which kicks-off on August 11.

His adaptation stars James Spader, Holly Hunter, and Rosanna Arquette. It follows advertising executive James Ballard and his wife Helen Remington who, after a near fatal car crash, are drawn into an exploration of the connections between danger, sex, and death.

The director has already received international acclaim for his work, which includes Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch.

In 1969 Edinburgh's Film Festival was the first to screen Cronenberg projects. This year new prints of Stereo and Crimes of the Future, his first avant garde films, will also be shown.

This summer's festival is expected to be one of the biggest yet with over 300 films to be screened over two weeks.

q.Edinburgh's Film and Video Access Centre wants to hear from people with whimsical memories of cinema days gone by. Tales of back-stall lust, misbehaviour, and bizarre events could be used in two five-minute films about Edinburgh's cinema-going past.

They are to be screened in September and October at the Cameo Cinema. If you can help, contact the Film and Video Access Centre on 0131-220 0220.