Starpower isn’t a trait that has been associated, in recent years, with Edinburgh’s International Film Festival. The event didn’t sustain any real drop in quality or reach, but has rather been a victim, like other summer festivals, of the tightening grip the fall period has on our industry.
This year, however, festival director Paul Ridd, in his sophomore year at the helm, has compiled, along with his growing team, an intriguing lineup packed with high-profile names from across the industry, many of whom rarely speak or appear publicly.
2025 EIFF visitors include producer Adele Romanski (Moonlight), who will appear alongside filmmaker Eva Victor. The festival will hold the UK premiere of Sorry, Baby, Victor’s debut feature as a director, and the latest film produced by Romanski for Pastel, the company she created with Barry Jenkins and Mark Ceryak. The Sixteen Films team, Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, and Rebecca O’Brien, will discuss their decades-long collaboration onstage, and the festival will screen their 2006 Palme d’Or winner The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Other high-profile names include Kevin Macdonald, who will be in conversation with his brother, producer Andrew Macdonald; filmmaker Andrea Arnold; A24 producer Rose Garnett; director Nia DaCosta; and filmmaker Ben Wheatley, who will debut a new secret project.
So, what’s behind the A-list push?
“It sends the right message out into the world that we’re very much growing and are able to bring together lots of creatives from all over the world,” Ridd tells us from the Scottish capital, adding that a bumper guestlist not only helps with good press but also helps the festival attract strong competition titles.
“Last year, we had 2,500 submissions. This year we had 4,000, on top of the hundreds more that we got either sent directly or that we saw through our networks,” Ridd says.
“That is testament to the fact that last year was very successful. But also shows that the message is out there now that we’re a major player to be contended with.”
When we speak, Ridd is just a few days out from the festival. He is rushed but contemplative and effusive about the titles he has set for this year’s edition.
The festival will screen 43 features, 18 of which will be world premieres. The main competition strand, officially known as The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, includes 10 world premiere titles. Buzzy titles from the competition include Two Neighbors, the first feature from Ondine Viñao. The film follows a wealthy socialite and a struggling writer who are thrown together at a debauched party. The cast includes Chloe Cherry (Euphoria), Anya Chalotra (The Witcher), and Ralph Ineson (The Witch). There’s also Low Rider, the latest feature from veteran filmmaker Campbell X (Stud Life), and Concessions, directed by Mas Bouzidi, which features one of the last performances from Michael Madsen.
Sorry, Baby will open the festival, and Reality Is Not Enough, the latest doc from Paul Sng, will close the event. Perhaps the most eye-catching title, however, is BULK, a new secretly shot feature from Ben Wheatley, which will open EIFF’s Midnight Madness strand.
Very little is known about BULK. Its first public mention was on Deadline, a few months back, when we announced it for the festival. The film was produced by Andy Starke of Rook Films and financed by Film4. It has been described as a return to Wheatley’s past “kaleidoscopic works like In The Earth and A Field in England.”
“It’s all been very cloak and dagger. I was aware from Film4 that Ben was working on a project. And then I went to London, with my festival producer Emma Boa, to see the film a few months back,” Ridd says of BULK.
Boa and Ridd are among the few outside Wheatley’s core group of collaborators to see the title.
“To this day, it still remains quite a secretive process, because there’s so much mystery around the film,” Ridd says.
Ridd describes the film as “strange” and “in the spirit of some of his early cinema,” pointing to Wheatley’s previous titles Down Terrace, A Field in England, and Kill List.
“There’s something magical about a filmmaker who’s made big movies like Meg 2 and Rebecca returning to his roots and doing something very DIY and very strange, and to have it in our midnight slot is super exciting.”
Midnight genre programming was one of the headline changes Ridd made to the festival structure during his first edition. EIFF is the only major UK festival with a dedicated midnight strand.
“Toronto is the kind of gold standard for Midnight Madness programming. And I’m proud that one of our films this year, Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover, which played Sundance, is playing Toronto Midnight Madness after playing with us,” Ridd says.
There was a similar crossover between Edinburgh and Toronto’s Midnight Madness last year when Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance screened in Scotland following its Cannes debut before heading to Canada.
“Any kind of alignment there with Toronto, which is such a high standard in genre programming, is very gratifying,” Ridd adds.
Tollcross Central Hall, a classical building at the center of one of Edinburgh’s creative neighborhoods, will serve as the festival’s main hub. It will also host the main Q&A events. The festival has used a variety of screening venues over the last few years. Screening venues this year include the Picturehouse-owned Cameo Cinema, the Vue Omni, Monkey Barrel Comedy, a new pop-up screen at the National Gallery of Scotland’s Hawthornden Theatre, and the newly reopened Filmhouse.
Filmhouse shut in 2022 when its former owner, a charity that also owned EIFF, went bust. The cinema building was sold in April 2023 for £2.65 million ($3.28 million) to the pub operator Caledonian Heritable. The Filmhouse management team negotiated a long-term lease with Caledonian to re-open the cinema and began a fundraising campaign to fund extensive refurbishments, which ended in June.
“It’s looking fantastic now,” Ridd says of the new look Filmhouse. “We’re using the Cameo for everything from Midnight Madness to Out Of Competition and Competition screening. Then we have Filmhouse, which has given us the use of all four screens for the festival. So there will be lots of screenings. It’s going to be a great space for people to enjoy films with us.”
One of the most curious titles playing at EIFF this year falls in the Competition strand for animated shorts. The project, titled They, was directed by veteran Bridget Jones actress Renée Zellweger. This is Zellweger’s debut as a filmmaker. The film’s synopsis reads: As the world reaches peak negativity, our hero’s plot for peace backfires with drastic consequences.
Ridd describes the short as a “really playful piece” that is “socially and politically engaged.”
“The film came to us through the producers. What really stood out to us was the confidence of the voice,” Ridd says. “And it is just a surprise to have this major Hollywood star, whom we associate with Cold Mountain, Bridget Jones, and Jerry Maguire, suddenly doing an animation that’s all about environmental issues. It’s not what you would expect at all. And we fought very hard to get the world premiere.”
In the way of Rep programming, for which Edinburgh is renowned, audiences will be able to catch all six of the James Bond films that star hometown hero Sean Connery. Those titles are Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever. The Sean Connery Foundation is a primary partner of the festival, and last year, EIFF screened The Untouchables. However, I couldn’t help but ponder whether the decision to screen all six of the actor’s Bond classics was a response to other recent cultural events. Perhaps the much-talked-about acquisition of the popular film series by Jeff Bezos’s Amazon. I put the question to Ridd. He sits back in his seat and smiles before responding.
“It is a very interesting time for that franchise,” he says. “And I think for people to be reminded of this incredible actor and these incredible films is a very good thing.”
The 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from August 14 to 20.
