Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) director Paul Ridd has laid out his ambition to bolster the festival’s marketplace offering at a time when the UK is without an export market following the cancellation of London Screenings after the 2025 edition.
“When these things are under threat, or when these things aren’t going ahead, we see an opportunity to engage UK sales agents, UK buyers and international reps, to come and spend time together in a space where they’re seeing a curated programme of new work that they can think about and take seriously,” said Ridd.
The festival is hosting a reception at the Berlinale tonight (February 14). “It’s our first big event at an international festival,” said Ridd. “That’s a chance to get a lot of really good UK sales agents, filmmakers and producers, but also international folk, into the same room, to emphasise our message and get it out there that we’re a really viable market, as well as a cultural launch for films.”
Ridd is in Berlin with festival producer Emma Boa, having back-to-back meetings with UK and international producers and sales agents, on the hunt for world premieres for the next August edition of the festival – Ridd’s third in post – which will be in the running to win the £50,000 Sean Connery Prize for feature filmmaking excellence.
The winner of the 2024 award, Jack King’s The Ceremony, has been nominated for the outstanding British debut award at the Baftas.
“We’re looking to up the number of world premieres we have,” said Ridd, who wants to keep the focus international.
“For Scottish and UK film, it’s good for those films and filmmakers, whether they’re short filmmakers just starting out, or very established voices, to be put in the context of this international body of work.
“We could do more to bring UK work into the lineup. We’ll aim to do that. But I like the fact that our competition is made up of a mixture of films from all over the world.”
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