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| Karen Gillan joins jury Photo: Courtesy of EIFF |
They will help select the winners in the five award categories - The Michael Powell Award for Best British Film; Best Performance in a British Feature; Best International Feature; Best Documentary; and Best Short Film.
The jury roster also includes LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan, American Film Institute director Jacqueline Lyanga, directors Amy Berg and Kyle Patrick Alvarez and actors Archie Panjabi, Denis Lawson and Dolly Wells.
Doctor Who star Gillan will see her directorial debut, short film Coward, have its world premiere at the festival. Fellow jurors Berg is also attending with her films Prophet's Prey and Every Secret Thing, while Alvarez is bringing his Stanford Prison Experiment. Wells is starring three films in the festival line-up - Black Mountain Poets, Doll & Em 2 and 45 Years.
EIFF Artistic Director Mark Adams said: “We very much look forward to welcoming guests from all over the world to help us celebrate this year’s fantastic programme of films and events. It’s a huge honour for us to welcome some amazing filmmakers and acting talent, and for us to be able to share this with our audiences throughout two fantastic weeks of cinema here in Edinburgh in June.”
Other awards include The Student Critics Jury Award, supported again this year by James and Morag Anderson; The McLaren Award for New British Animation, supported by the British Council; and the EIFF Audience Award.
Other guests attending screenings of their films this year include EIFF Honorary Patron Robert Carlyle, Ashley Jensen, Kevin Guthrie, Brian Pettifer, Martin Compston, James Cosmo and Tom Courtenay.
As well as taking part in an In-Person on-stage interview with radio and television broadcaster Edith Bowman, actor Ewan McGregor, with director Rodrigo Garcia, will also introduce his film Last Days In The Desert. Actor Rhys Ifans will be on hand at several films he features in, including the world premiere of drama Len And Company, Welsh film Under Milk Wood; and the world premiere of the feature cut of Sky Arts TV series The Marriage of Reason And Squalor.
Alexander Skarsgård and Bel Powley will be in Edinburgh for the UK premiere of The Diary of A Teenage Girl, while German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) will attend the screening of his new film 13 Minutes. Model and actress Sophie Kennedy Clark will attend for The Marriage of Reason And Squalor and Stephen Tompkinson and Keith Allen will attend with their film Hector.
Director Asif Kapadia will be in town for the screening of documentary Amy, while couple Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola will attend a special screening of the full season of their hit TV series Doll & Em, while actor Denis Menochet will attend the UK premiere of Norfolk.
Singer/songwriter Fish, from rock band Marillion, will be at the fesetival or the premiere of documentary Polska. Director/actress Talulah Riley will attend the world premiere of her directorial debut Scottish Mussel, along with many of the cast and crew, while James Cosmo will also attend the world premiere of his new film The Pyramid Texts.
As previously announced, the Asian Film Awards Academy presents In Person: Johnnie Ton. Malcolm McDowell, Neil Innes and Jane Seymour will also present In-Persons at the Festival, and acclaimed cinematographer and EIFF Honorary Patron Seamus McGarvey will be in conversation with two-time Oscar winner Haskell Wexler.
