The Edinburgh International Film Festival will re-introduce its major awards this year, after dropping them for the 2011 edition.

Chris Fujiwara, the festival’s new artistic director, confirmed that awards will be given for Best International Feature Film by an Emerging Director, Best Performance in a British Feature Film and The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature. The Powell award will now be open to documentaries.

Fujiwara said, “I am delighted to re-introduce these awards for the Festival this year and am pleased to give both documentary and fiction films the opportunity to win the awards. I feel very strongly that having noteworthy awards is important for an international film festival. Awards can stimulate creative dialogue and above all help shine the spotlight on emerging talent, which is part of the mission of EIFF.”