Europe and Brexit in high focus for Edinburgh International Film Festival

Mark Adams, artistic director of the festival, which takes place in the capital in June, said there had been a conscious effort to feature European film making in the line-up this year, as well as woman film makers, who make up more than 40% of feature films and short films.

It will however, open with a film set in Scotland, Boyz in the Wood, while closing with biopic Mrs Lowry & Son, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall.

Mr Adams said: "I just think we haven't had the opportunity to do this before, we've linked our national focus, Spain, with our retrospective, both new films and older films, and we just wanted to pay tribute to the great cinema of Europe.

"This time, when we were planning on this, theoretically, we would have been out of Europe [on 29 March].

"And who knows what is going to happen now? It is a very interesting thing: the original vote for held in the middle of the Festival [on 23 June, 2016].

"It's very important for us, we work with talent from all around the world, and anything that is going to make coming here, not just Europeans, but anyone coming into the UK, more complicated with visas and so on [is important].

"We really have to celebrate everybody's culture and their ability to bring it here."

Boyz In The Wood, a debut feature by writer and director Ninian Doff is set in the Scottish Highlands and is about four boys who try to escape a mysterious hunter.

Rian Gordon, Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja and Lewis Gribben play the four boys and the supporting cast includes Eddie Izzard, Kate Dickie, James Cosmo and Kevin Guthrie.

Of Boyz in the Wood, he said: "This is a young Scottish talent, an Edinburgh talent [Doff], that is doing something different - it's not linear, it's not period.

"It's a bit like Trainspotting meets Calibre, it has that mixture of energy and youth and craziness, with a bit of darkness around the edges."

Mr Adams said that the Scottish screen industry was in a "fascinating" position, with Screen Scotland launched, and potentially a new film studio in Leith being established in the coming year.

He said: "I think the trick is always that balance - you need new film makers, you need classic big budget, you need television, you need things like Outlander out there: they all have to function at the same time, because you feed the whole thing.

"Last year there was Outlaw King and Mary, Queen of Scots, since then there hasn't been a big film shooting...but it seems to be there is a lot of young film makers, a lot of ambition."

Danny Boyle, director of the Trainspotting films among others, will be appearing at an In Person event, as will the actor Jack Lowden, Nick Broomfield, the writer, actor and director Pollyanna McIntosh and award-winning film producer Rebecca O'Brien.

The festival will also feature a tribute to Agnes Varda, the lauded French film maker who died in March.

Toy Story 4, the Pixar movie, will also be shown.

Mrs Lowry and Son, is directed by Adrian Noble, a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and depicts the relationship between artist L.S. Lowry, played by Timothy Spall, and his mother Elizabeth, played by Vanessa Redgrave, with whom he lived until her death.

In all the annual festival will screen around 121 new features, including 18 feature film world premieres, 12 International Premieres, eight European Premieres and 78 UK Premieres from 42 countries in its 73rd edition and run from 19 to 30 June.

Adams added: “It is always important that EIFF reflects the changing face of all aspects of society and culture.

"With attitudes changing throughout the world it is important that this year the festival has a real European spin and presents a series of wonderful films from around Europe with a particular emphasis on Spain this year."

British films this year include Bittersweet Symphony, starring Suki Waterhouse, The Black Forest from writer-director Ruth Platt, Schemers, based on writer-producer David McLean’s early years in the music business and the thriller Strange But True starring Blythe Danner, Brian Cox and Greg Kinnear. Danny Boyle’s Yesterday features a cast including Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon.

Them That Follow, staring Olivia Colman, about an Appalachian sect, will receive its European premiere at the Festival as will Ode to Joy starring Martin Freeman and The Sound of Silence starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones.

Skin, based on the true story of neo-Nazi Bryon Widner, starring Jamie Bell will be shown, as will the Cannes 2019 opener, Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die.

European films will come from France, Ireland, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, Croatia, Germany, North Macedonia, Greece, Ukraine, Switzerland, Belgium, Georgia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland.

Documentaries being shown include This Changes Everything which examines the problems faced by women filmmakers and features interviews with Hollywood figures including Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Taraji P. Henson, Reese Witherspoon and Cate Blanchett.

The Scottish Documentary Institute will celebrate the art of documentary filmmaking by female directors.

The retrospective section, which has already been announced, will celebrate the cinema of Spain.

There is a new strand, Cinecuisine, which will feature a series of "special culinary screenings and events."

As previously announced the free open-air cinema event, Film Fest in the City with Edinburgh Live, will also return to St Andrew Square Garden, running from 14 to 16 June.

Isabel Davis, executive director at Screen Scotland said: "It’s exciting to see EIFF showcasing a number of British debut features, alongside strong international threads, reflecting Scotland’s close affinity with both our European neighbours and filmmakers from across the globe, including Scottish/Swedish co-production Scheme Birds.

"It’s also a chance to encounter stellar filmmakers such as Danny Boyle and Rebecca O’Brien, whose work has brought Scottish stories, unique characters and talent to the world."