Edinburgh's Film Festival

The Edinburgh International Film Festival or EIFF is part of the Edinburgh Festival, which takes place every August. Established in 1947, it is the longest continually running film festival in the world. When it was started by the Edinburgh Film Guild (the oldest continually running Film Society in the world) it was only for documentaries. At the time there were only a couple of other Film Festivals in the world (Cannes and Venice). The festival shows a range of films from around the world and screens not only feature length films and documentaries, but also shorts, animations and music videos. The Grand Jury awards "The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film" while the audience can vote for the "Standard Life Audience Award" and a panel made up of first time film-makers judges the "Skillset New Directors Award." There are also several awards given to short films. All films shown are U.K. premieres although many are also European or International Premieres.

The Artistic Director since September 2006 is Hannah McGill, previously a film critic and cinema columnist for (The Herald, Glasgow) newspaper. Ginnie Atikinson is the long serving Managing Director. Sir Sean Connery and Tilda Swinton are the film festivals honorary patrons.

Shane Danielson, the previous Artistic director programmed the festival between 2002 and 2006

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