THERE is good and bad news for Scottish film at this year's Drambuie Edinburgh Film Festival. The downside is the fact that, in this the fiftieth year of the event, there is no significant home-grown feature film to speak of in the programme. The eagerly anticipated Stella Does Tricks was not ready in time and, for reasons best known to the organisers of the festival and the movie's distributers, Ken Loach decided to unveil his Glasgow-set Carla's Song at Venice instead of Edinburgh.

However, the glaring absence of a major indigenous product is more than offset by a particularly strong clutch of Scottish short films. Among the highlights are two contemporary-set films written and directed by women. Caroline Patterson's Lucky Suit is a gentle, offbeat comedy, set in a decaying Glasgow hotel, about two down-and-outs (Gary Lewis and an uncharacteristically soft-in-the-head Robert Carlyle) whose rather sad lives become entwined with that of a failed comedian (Ron Donachie) and his over faithful fan (Barbara Rafferty).

Every bit as good is Aileen Ritchie's funny yet touching Double Nougat, with Andy Gray as the loveless owner of a seaside cafe who finds his life changes when, hospitalised after a near fatal heart attack, he meets a lonely nurse (Pauline Quirke). It is a lovely film which, like Lucky Suit, proves the point that Scottish shorts have improved immeasurably in a very short time.

Part of the reason for this is down to the consistently fine example set by the Scottish Film Production Fund/BBC Scotland Tartan Shorts strand. And the latest triple-bill not only maintains, but might just surpass the high standards of previous years.

The best of the trio is Dead Sea Reels, a quite exquisite and extremely thoughtful film, written by Sergio Casci and directed (with his customary style) by Don Coutts. It includes a performance by Ian Bannen which approaches exquisite perfection.

It is a simple and ultimately ironic story about a man (Moray Hunter) coming to terms with the sudden death of his young daughter. In hospital after suffering a mental breakdown, he meets an ageing Catholic priest (Bannen) who attempts to restore both his faith and his peace of mind.

Coming in a close second is The Star, a beguiling tale directed with great charm by David Moore. Writer John Milarky has produced a wonderfully evocative script about a little boy in the late Sixties, who, after his mother's death, finds comfort by gazing up at the stars and regarding them, literally, as ``heavenly bodies''.

Initiation was written and directed by Martin McCardie and is about a sensitive young man who is forced to endure a brutal initiation ritual on a factory floor (with his own father leading the way). Though it is by no means a bad film, the story is perhaps not quite as strong as it might have been.

If the quality of the work in the shorter Prime Cuts strand (six films funded by the SFPF and Scottish Television) is anything to go by, then the future for Scottish film looks bright. Best up is Hard Nut - A Love Story, a lovely wee comic tale written by Eddie McCardie and starring Steven Duffy. Almost as good is Nicola Black's Dead Eye Dick, a mischievous black comedy, and Katrina MacPherson's charming Dancing, Some Days.

Equally impressive is the Centenary Reels strand (nine films funded by the SFPF and Scottish Television). Mirror Mirror is great fun and could only have been written by a woman (Wendy Griffin, who also directed).

It is filmed as though the camera was behind the mirror in the women's toilets at a Glasgow nightclub, recording, with comic accuracy, the kind of conversations girls have when they toddle off to freshen up.

ALLAN LAING