Category Archives: Film

As part of the 10th edition of the Iberodocs festival, celebrating the  latest documentaries from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, the 2023 ‘docu/hybrid’ film El Castillo (The Castle) from Director Martín Benchimol had its Scottish premiere. It was introduced on the stage of Edinburgh’s Cameo cinema by co-founder and director of Cinetopia, Amanda Rogers andContinue reading “The Castle (El Castillo)         Iberodocs Festival Cameo Cinema”

The Sean Connery Foundation has come on board the 2024 Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) to establish The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, a £50,000 award to a single filmmaker as part of a new features competition prize at the centre of the relaunched festival. The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence creates anContinue reading “Sean Connery Foundation Sponsors Prize for Edinburgh International Film Festival”

Iberodocs is a festival offering a selected programme of the latest documentaries from Spain, Portugal and Latin America. It features six feature-length documentaries from Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Panama, Portugal, and Spain along with two short films made by Scotland-based filmmakers and will feature several in-person and Zoom Q&As with international filmmakers. Each feature filmContinue reading “Iberodocs Returns to Edinburgh and Glasgow for its Tenth Edition”

This year’s Manipulate Festival featured a programme of animated short films, each comprising 90 minutes sessions and showcasing up to 10 films created by animators from across the globe. Bringing messages about the human condition, the environment, gender issues and politics as well as just surreal takes on life, this selection encompassed as many stylesContinue reading “Animated Shorts (1,2 &3) at Summerhall Manipulate Festival”

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (aka ‘HippFest’) was launched in 2011 and has since become a key annual event in the cultural calendar, drawing audiences from across Scotland and beyond. This very special festival of film takes place at the exquisite jewel of art deco style that is the Hippodrome Cinema in Bo’ness. Reopened inContinue reading “Hippodrome Silent Film Festival Announces 2024 Programme”

Some years ago, a fellow cinema audience member coined a beautifully apt phrase while observing the number of single people occupied in a variety of ways as they awaited the start of a screening. The neat and apposite phrase was ‘…in solitary union.’ At this year’s Manipulate Festival, that oft embraced concept of viewing filmsContinue reading “One Bum Cinema Manipulate Festival”

A revitalised Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will inaugurate a competition for its 77th edition, which will run from 15th to 21st August 2024. Under new leadership that comes with a new vision, EIFF is poised to accelerate the discovery of new talent through significant prize-money awarded to the filmmakers of the Best Feature FilmContinue reading “Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024 Announces New Competition and Dates “

The locker room of the predominantly female staff in a fish canning factory is the opening scene of this intriguing Canadian French film from director Sébastien Marnier, whose superb cast in the wider story is also predominantly female. A young woman from that factory, played by the wonderful Laure Calamy,  turns up at the homeContinue reading “The Origin of Evil (l’Origine du Mal) (15)              French Film Festival”

This winter, Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Warehouse plays host to artist-filmmaker, Sarah Wood’s film Project Paradise. The work isinspired by the Black and White Oil Conference organised by Richard Demarco in Edinburgh in 1974 at which Joseph Beuys and Buckminster Fuller both spoke. The conference took place in the context of the imminent exploitation of oil and naturalContinue reading “New Film Project Paradise on the Climate Crisis Plays at Fruitmarket This Winter”

In lesser hands, this might just have been another “odd couple go on a journey” movie that would have made for pleasant, but unremarkable, viewing. In this case, Director Marc Fitoussi presents us with a film that sets the standard for the genre. The odd couple here, estranged school friends Magalie (Laure Calamy) and BlandineContinue reading “Two Tickets to Greece (Les Cyclades) (15)             French Film Festival”