The Edinburgh International Film Festival was founded, organised and administered by the Edinburgh Film Guild between 1947 and 1977, a fact which is often omitted from contemporary Festival history.
“From the Guild came the Edinburgh International Film Festival that has run alongside and complemented the Edinburgh International Festival since its inception in 1947,” wrote Philip French, ‘The Observer’ film critic, in 2004.
The Edinburgh Film Guild held the first ‘International Festival of Documentary Films‘ in 1947. Over the next few years, the festival’s focus expanded to include fiction and experimental films. In the process, it grew to become the world-famous ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival’, attracting audiences from all over Britain and around the world.
Foundation: 1947 to 1949
Images (left to right): Leaflet of the ‘First International Festival of Documentary Films’. Cover of the festival brochure ‘Documentary 47’
“The aim of the founders, the Edinburgh Film Guild, was to have the cinema worthily represented at the first International Festival of the arts to be held in Britain.”1 “The thrust behind Edinburgh’s creation was a passion for cinema, and more, a politics of cinema, the wish to advance the collective interest in certain cinematic forms and institutions, and to create knowledge and debate about them. The key figures in the group which set the Edinburgh Festival up were Norman Wilson (1906-87) and Forsyth Hardy (1910-94)”2, both of whom were founding members of the Edinburgh Film Guild.
Guild Chairman, Norman Wilson, describes the origins of the Festival: “When plans were being made for the first ‘International Festival of Music and Drama’ to be held in Edinburgh in 1947, we felt that the cinema must be represented along with the other arts. As there were various other film festivals held regularly on the Continent dealing with entertainment films, we felt that Edinburgh must do something different. That something different was in the realm of documentary, which has a special appeal to the realistic strain in the Scots temperament. We suggested, therefore, a Festival of Documentary Films and the idea was accepted.”3
The Guild formed an Advisory Committee to assist with planning and programming. Members of the committee included key figures in the Documentary Film Movement, a group of British filmmakers, led by John Grierson, who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s. The committee included: Charles A. Oakley, Paul Rotha, Basil Wright, Festival Chairman: Norman Wilson, Honorary Secretary: Forsyth Hardy, and Honorary Treasurer: F.C.P. MacLauchlan.
“The first international Film Festival to be held in Britain will be devoted entirely to Documentary. This is no accident; for not only does Britain lead the world in documentary production, but the documentary approach—an innate feeling for reality—is now the distinguishing characteristic of British feature films,” said Forsyth Hardy.4 John Grierson opened the first festival.
The Festival’s first registered office was the newly acquired premises at 6-8 Hill Street EH2 3JZ, which the Guild named ‘Film House’. The new ‘Film House’ was crucial in making it possible for the Guild to launch the ‘First International Festival of Documentary Films’. Most of the early Festival screenings were held in ‘The Guild Theatre’ at Film House.
Images (left to right): ‘The Guild Theatre’ at Film House.
Highlights of the period
Highlights of the first festivals included screenings of Farrebique (1946) Georges Rouqier. Paisà (1946) Roberto Rossellini; Waverley Steps (1948) John Eldridge; The Edge of the World (1937) Michael Powell; Paris 1900 (1948) Nicole Védrès; Berliner Ballade (1948) Robert A. Stemmle; The Miracle (1948) Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini; Jour de Fete (1948) Jacques Tati; and the publication of festival brochure ‘Documentary 47’, which included ‘A Time for Enquiry’ by John Grierson and a range of other contributions.
The 1950s and 1960s
“Back in the 1950s and 1960s it was a glamorous affair that attracted many of the great film-makers of the era.”5
TOP ROW (left to right): 1) Actress Melina Mercouri and director Jules Dassin at the Guild’s ‘Film House’ for a premiere of ‘He Who Must Die’ in 1957. 2) Gene Kelly opened the 1956 Edinburgh International Film Festival with a screening of ‘Invitation to the Dance’. 3) Actor and director Orson Welles arrives at the ‘Cameo Cinema’ to give a lecture during the 1953 Festival. MIDDLE ROW (left to right): 4) Scottish comic actor Duncan Macrae and French actor, mime and film-maker Jacques Tati attend a reception at ‘Film House’ during the Edinburgh Film Festival 1955. 5) Forsyth Hardy, founding member of the Edinburgh Film Guild and Honorary Secretary of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, talks to actors Kenneth More and Muriel Pavlov in 1956. 6) Swedish film actress Elsa Prawitz outside ‘Film House’ in 1963. BOTTOM ROW (left to right): 7) Founding member of the Edinburgh Film Guild and Chair of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Norman Wilson (right), speaks with guests in 1955. 8) Actor Alan Bates with director Clive Donner at ‘Film House’ for a screening of ‘The Caretaker’ in 1963. 9) Film director John Huston (left) and Norman Wilson (right) at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1954. Photos: Unknown.
1953 rang in a number of changes intended to expand the scope of the Festival, including the incorporation of the Cameo cinema together with a number of other cinemas across the city, making it possible to show 170 of the 210 films submitted. In 1958, the Edinburgh Film Guild relocated to a new ‘Film House’ at 3 Randolph Crescent, which it fitted with a 100-seat cinema as well as 35mm and 16mm projection. As with the previous ‘Film House’, the new location acted as a Festival venue, and as its base and administrative centre.
Highlights of the period
1953: Actor and director Orson Welles gave a lecture at the Cameo cinema during the Festival. 1954: Director John Huston served as Honorary President. A Dinner was held celebrating ’25 Years of Documentary’ with pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson the Guest of Honour. The British Film Academy Celebrity Lecture was delivered by director Anthony Asquith.
Images (left to right): 1955 Festival Brochure page on Vittorio de Sica, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Vittorio de Sica
1955: The festival screened Jacques Tati‘s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. Danish director and screenwriter, Carl Theodor Dreyer, gave the lecture ‘Art Of The Film’. Writer Matsutarō Kawaguchi received the David O. Selznick ‘Golden Laurel Award’ for his work on Ugetsu. Honorary Edinburgh Film Festival President, Vittorio de Sica, received a ‘Golden Laurel Award’ for his “devotion to the highest standard of cinematic artistry.” A two-day conference on ‘Making Films For Children’ was held, while UNESCO convened a meeting on setting up an international centre for children’s films. 1956: Gene Kelly premiered his Invitation to the Dance at the New Victoria cinema. 1957: The Festival hosted Edinburgh’s first Midnight Matinee: Elia Kazan‘s A Face in the Crowd, with a personal appearance by actor Patricia Neal. 1958: Roman Polanski‘s Two Men and a Wardrobe was the most talked about film at the Festival. 1960: The Festival ‘s Hon President was Michael Balcon. The Festival premiered Ingmar Bergman‘s The Virgin Spring. 1965: The First Annual Education Film Week was held, “bringing together the newest and most important examples of the world-wide production of teaching films.” 1966: The main focus was on the Polish National Film School, with a lecture by Rector of the school, Jerzy Toeplitz, and films by graduates including The Saragossa Manuscript, directed by Wojciech Has, and Cul de Sac directed by Roman Polanski. 1968: The Festival focused on the output of the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles film schools. 1969: There were Sam Fuller and Roger Corman retrospectives, a Galla screening of Easy Rider, a Pop Film Festival and Festival of Student and Independent Films.
From 1968 onwards the festival “would assume an innovative, oppositional face, offering a platform for cultish directors and a window for some of the most exciting developments in international filmmaking.”6
1970 to 1977
The 1970s saw major changes in the Festival, bringing in a new and younger group of individuals. “Lynda Myles…inherited a thriving Festival from Murray Grigor, who had turned it around from a moribund spell in the late sixties, with the help of Lynda and her then partner David Will. [Jim Hickey, future director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, was also a key part of this team.] Grigor, a filmmaker himself, embraced the pair’s cinephile vision and encouraged the Festival to celebrate mavericks like Sam Fuller and Douglas Sirk, who had been largely overlooked by mainstream criticism. Lynda continued this wholeheartedly when she took over as Director, augmenting it with a new focus on theory and ideology. During this cinematic revolution, Lynda’s critical acumen put Edinburgh at the forefront of the field, with retrospectives on Raoul Walsh, Max Ophuls and Jacques Tourneur, and helping discover both the New German cinema and the New Hollywood cinema.”7 They worked with British theorist and filmmaker Peter Wollen and introduced film retrospectives, educational and publishing events to the festival.
Images (left to right): Brochure cover and pages on Douglas Sirk Retrospective, Curtis Harrington Retrospective and Women’s Film Festival
Highlights of the period
History, Production, Memory Event (organised by Claire Johnston). Retrospectives of Max Ophuls, Raoul Walsh, Wim Wenders, Dziga Vertov, Douglas Sirk and Curtis Harrington. The first Edinburgh International Television Festival. Gala Screenings of: Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen, The American Friend (1977) Wim Wenders, The Death Collector (1976) Ralph De Vito, Rabid (1977) David Cronenberg, Fat City (1972) John Huston. Women’s Film Festival (including the work of directors): Leni Riefenstahl, Kirsten Stenbæk, Joyce Wieland, Storm de Hirsch, Vera Chytilová, Ester Krumbachová, Kate Millet, Patricia Holland, Beverly Grant Conrad, May Spils, Esther Ronay, Leontine Sagan, Midge Mackenzie, Judit Elek.
1978 to Present Day
The 31st Festival of 1977 was the last registered at the Guild’s ‘Film House’, then at 3 Randolph Crescent. In 1978 the registered office was transferred to the newly opened ‘Filmhouse’ on Lothian Road, which the Edinburgh Film Guild had a key role in establishing. The Festival enjoyed great successes in its new home, inspiring innovative and stimulating programming over many years.
In 2010, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) was established to run both the ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival’ and ‘Filmhouse’. But, on October 6th 2022, ‘Screen Daily’ announced: ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival to cease trading as parent charity enters administration’. Administrators would focus “on marketing the assets for sale…and looking to transfer the brand and trademark of Edinburgh International Film Festival.”8
Creative Scotland bought the Festival brand and trademark in 2023 and editions of the film festival have since taken place under the auspices of the ‘Edinburgh International Festival’. In 2024, the director of the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival, Paul Ridd, described the festival as “a 77-year-old start-up.”9
The Edinburgh International Film Festival was the first film festival in the UK and it is the oldest continually running film festival the world.
References:
- University of Stirling Archives (Grierson Archive, G7:44:61)
- The Rises and Falls of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, in Cinema, Culture, Scotland. Selected Essays by Colin McArthur. Edited by: Jonathan Murray (Edinburgh University Press, 2023)
- Wilson, N. 1951. ‘History and Achievements’ in ‘Twenty-one Years of Cinema‘, Edinburgh: Edinburgh Film Guild, pp. 5-6)
- Forsyth Hardy (University of Stirling Archives, ref. Hardy 3:9:8)
- David Hepburn, The Scotsman, 20th July 2022
- Stanfield, Peter (7 October 2008). “Notes Toward a History of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, 196977”. Film International. 6 (4): 62–71.
- The Edinburgh Dialogues #6: Lynda Myles (David Cairns, Shadowplay, 29 June 2011)
- Edinburgh International Film Festival to cease trading as parent charity enters administration (Mona Tabbara, Screen Daily, 6 October 2022)
- Screen Daily, 8 August 2024
Additional research: ALIOSHA HERRERA. Thanks to the staff at the National Library of Scotland for their assistance.