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| Rolling out the red carpet at Edinburgh Filmhouse for last night’s opening of the 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival Photo: Richard Mowe |
After striding the immaculate red carpet on Lothian Road he was introduced by Festival director Paul Ridd, Paxton was almost lost for words but rallied to say: “You can tell I am not used to this. But tonight is such a big deal because I used to sit up there in the corner as an usher. And I would watch all kinds of amazing films. This cinema and this festival have been a big part of my life for a long time.”
Some of those films may have soaked into his psyche to find their place in The Incomer (also screened simultaneously last night at the Cameo) which makes allusions to Alfred Hitchcock and The Birds, Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings, plus The Wicker Man among others including Bill Forsyth of Local Hero fame. The film, about two eccentric siblings (Gayle Rankin and Gavin O’Rourke) on a remote island, is preceded by the fabled globe-encircling Universal logo which must have provided another heart-thumping moment for the filmmaker on his first directorial outing. The Incomer receives a wide UK release from 4 September and is out in the US on 25 September.
Ridd and his cohort Emma Boa are on their third edition together after the rescue of the festival from near-extinction with the collapse of umbrella body the Centre for the Moving Image and the liquidation, closure and recent reopening of Filmhouse. This seems to have got back the Festival’s mojo with a sprinkling of significant names attending, among them Ewan McGregor, Irvine Welsh (for the 30th Trainspotting anniversary), Kenneth Branagh, Christine Vachon, Alan Cumming, and Ken Burns as well as an enhanced industry programme.
The festival director said the new team were conscious of having “inherited this incredible legacy and history over 70-plus years”. He continued: “We are trying to honour that legacy while also trying to do something quite new. That involves the competitions that we have, the world premiere principle and all the things we do in and around film.
“When we are thinking about the programme we are looking at it through our own lens, and also our own personal taste but we are also trying to look at it through another lens and trying to think about all the different audiences who make up our festival. And that is a very diverse audience and a very contradictory audience in lots of different ways who bring many different perspectives to the table. We want to provide a huge range of modern cinema for all these different tastes. I think about legacy but I also think about future.” That future presents a significant 80th anniversary next year for the oldest continually running film festival in the world.
Realising that the EIFF cannot compete with the likes of Cannes, Venice and Toronto, EIFF is styling itself as “the home of independent cinema” and this year will present 21 world premieres. It is hoped to surpass last year’s admissions which rose to 16.500 from 12,000 in 2024.
The EIFF continues until 19 August.
Read parts one and two of our interview with Louis Paxton.
