EIFF 2017: programme announced

On 21 June, the 71st Edinburgh International Film Festival will kick off with its best opening film in years, Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country, a rough-hewn love story between two sheep farmers in the Yorkshire moors. Eleven days later, on 2 July, the festival will come to a close with England Is Mine, the world premiere of Mark Gill’s Morrissey biopic starring Jack Lowdown as the mopy Mancunian singer. In between these bookends, EIFF offers up its usual mix of mint fresh feature films (in total 151 from 46 countries), shorts, retrospective screenings, and in-person talks.

Stars at EIFF 2017: Kevin Bacon, Oliver Stone

If you’re the type of person who enjoys playing six degrees of separation with the talent attending EIFF each year, the game becomes a whole lot easier with Kevin Bacon in the line-up. The ubiquitous star of Footloose, Tremors and JFK will be in town with new film Story of a Girl, which is the directorial debut of Bacon’s fellow actor and partner Kyra Sedgwick. The husband-wife team will give a Q&A following the film as well as a separate EIFF In-Person event. One of Bacon’s very best films, 2004’s The Woodsman, which also features Sedgwick, also screens during the festival.

Two other unmissable In-Person talks are EIFF’s sitdowns with Stanley Tucci and Richard E. Grant, who over the years have proved themselves to be among cinema’s finest raconteurs. Tucci is attending EIFF with passion project Final Portrait, in which Geoffrey Rush stars as Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti. Grant, meanwhile, doesn’t have any new projects in the programme, but he will be introducing two of his most iconic films: How to Get Ahead in Advertising and cult classic Withnail and I, both directed by Bruce Robinson and screening in The Future is History retrospective.

Also taking part in In-Person events will be award-winning composer David Arnold (Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Independence Day); film, television and stage actor Bernard Hill (Lord of the Rings, Titanic, Boys From the Blackstuff); and the kickarse Lizzie Borden – as well as the In-Person she’ll be introducing her landmark feminist sci-fi Born in Flames.

Oliver Stone is also expected to be in Edinburgh for EIFF’s 30th anniversary screening of Wall Street; the legendary director will introduce the film and take part in a Q&A following the screening.

American indies at EIFF 2017

A number of films have caught our eye from EIFF’s American Dreams strand. We’ve heard great things about gritty neo-noir Sweet Virginia, which reportedly features a knockout performance from Christopher Abbott (Girls, James White) as a drifter who wreaks havoc on a small Alaskan town. We also love the sound of animation My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, which crosses the teen movie with the disaster flick. The visually unique comedy features the vocal talents of Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph and Lena Dunham and comes from the mind of über talented cartoonist and film director Dash Shaw.

The Little Hours – which has been described as a medieval comedy where the sets and costumes are period, but the dialogue is totally contemporary and colloquial – sounds like a riot. From the director of Life After Beth, it stars Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Kate Micucci as depressed nuns whose moods pick up when a handsome handyman, played by Dave Franco, enters their lives. Talking of the Franco clan, EIFF attendees are likely to have less fun watching the latest film from Dave’s big bro James. Franco the elder has already turned books by William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy into terrible movies, and with In Dubious Battle it sounds like he’s done similar with another giant of the American literary canon, John Steinbeck.

Also in the American Dreams strand, 81-year-old documentarian Eleanor Coppola is making her narrative film debut with Paris Can’t Wait, a romance starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin; Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston plays a businessman hiding out in his attic George Bluth-style in Wakefield; and Michelle Pfeiffer is reportedly fantastic as a near-destitute divorcee in economic tragedy Where is Kyra?

Big name directors at EIFF 2017

UK audiences will get their first chance to see Song to Song; another dreamy experimentation from Terrence Malick, it’s set within the Austin music scene and centres on a relationship tangle between Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman.

There’s also the opportunity to see Okja, the story of a girl and her genetically modified pet, which comes from talented Korean director Bong Joon-ho. The film is fresh from Cannes but the EIFF screening is hardly a coup: you’ll find Okja streaming on Netflix before the festival is even over.

Action fans, meanwhile, will be first in line for Operation Mekong, a Hong Kong thriller about the real-life hunt for a murderous kingpin in the wilds of the Golden Triangle from action maestro and John Woo disciple Dante Lam.

Other familiar faces

Danny Huston directs Lockerbie bombing drama The Last Photograph. Bryn Higgins follows up EIFF hit Unconditional with Access All Areas, which stars Jordan Stephens – one half of hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks – on a group road trip to the Isle of Wight’s Bestival music festival; Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom looks to be challenging himself with Romans, in which he plays a middle-aged man who’s been left damaged by the sexual abuse he was subjected to as a child; and we have the privilege of seeing one of the final screen performances by the late, great John Hurt in That Good Night.

Documentaries at EIFF 2017

Plenty of music nuts will be eager to see Teenage Superstars – Grant McPhee’s follow-up to EIFF audience award winner Big Gold Dream – which takes us on a tour of Scottish music from the mid-80s to the dawn of Britpop. Classic Hollywood fans should seek out Becoming Cary Grant, which explores the North by Northwest actor’s journey from childhood poverty to global fame. And we can confirm the second film from Pablo's Winter director Chico Pereira, Donkyote, which follows an elderly eccentric, his donkey and his dog on a journey across America, is a quixotic delight.

And much, much more...

There’s also the terrifying prospect of Russia's first superhero film, Guardians (the Avengers has a Hulk, the Guardians have a big bear); a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark with live score courtesy of the RSNO; crime author Ian Rankin presents Reichenbach Falls, which is based on one of his short stories; an 80th anniversary screening of The Edge of the World, the first major feature by Michael Powell, the legendary director from whom EIFF’s top film prize takes its name; some mesmerising experimental work from the always immaculately curated Black Box strand; shorts from emerging Scottish and international talent; a Focus on Poland presenting a snapshot of contemporary Polish cinema; and wide-ranging retrospective The Future is History, which screens – amongst other things – the pick of the features produced through George Harrison’s HandMade Films and the most daring sci-fi features from the early 1980s.

"We’re thrilled to finally be able to reveal all of the details of this year’s diverse programme,” said EIFF director Mark Adams. “In the Festival’s 70th Anniversary Year, we’re proud to be showcasing some of the most exciting, accomplished material from around the world and are looking forward to hosting these talented filmmakers and artists when the Festival opens on 21 June.”