Ten films to see at Edinburgh Film Festival 2025

There are many roadmaps into EIFF's programme. Some people are drawn to the mint-fresh movies that haven’t screened anywhere else in the world. There are plenty of those in this year’s edition, including ten features competing for The Sean Connery Prize, plus brand new films from the likes of Andrew Kötting, Ben Wheatley and Paul Sng – the latter’s Reality Is Not Enough, a documentary about Irvine Welsh, closes the festival. Others will be keen to check out films that have already made a splash on the festival circuit, like Dominik Moll’s Case 137 or the Dardenne Brothers’ Young Mothers, both Cannes contenders, or Sundance breakout Sorry, Baby, which opens proceedings.

Perhaps you’re keen on the retrospectives, which this year include a chance to see all of Sean Connery’s official Bond films on the big screen? Maybe you'll be knocking back a coffee and staying up late for the genre films of Midnight Madness? Or maybe hearing conversations with some of the visiting filmmakers, who include Andrea Arnold, Jeremy Thomas and Ken Loach, is more your style? My advice is simply to dive in and discover the films and events that speak to you. To get you started, however, here are ten titles I’ll be seeking out. 

After This Death

If you saw Lucio Castro’s time-jumping queer romance End of the Century from 2019, you’ll be desperate to catch this latest work. It’s reportedly a tantalising and enigmatic tale concerning the mysterious disappearance of a charismatic rock star (Lee Pace) following his intense affair with a pregnant woman (Mia Maestro). 15, 16 & 19 Aug

Christy

We’ve been hearing great things about Brendan Canty’s debut Christy since its premiere at the Berlinale. It’s reportedly a sparky film exploring the lives of young people being let down by Ireland’s care system and living on the margins in a hardscrabble suburb of Cork. Expect pathos, wit and occasional rapping. 15, 16 & 18 Aug

Dragonfly

Paul Andrew Williams broke onto the British film scene in a big way at EIFF 2006 with his bruising social-realist thriller London to Brighton. He makes a homecoming with Dragonfly, a new drama about two chalk-and-cheese neighbours (Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough) who form an unexpected bond. But don’t expect a cuddly two-hander; this is reportedly a fierce and strange tale of urban loneliness. 16, 18 & 19 Aug

The Golden Spurtle

OK, if you know me, you know I love a sports movie, and I love a bowl of porridge; therefore, this documentary about the World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge is right up my alley. But reports are that Greek-Australian director Constantine Costi (who usually makes operas) has crafted a gripping and offbeat film that even porridge agnostics should enjoy. 17, 18 & 19 Aug

Hysteria

We’re told there are shades of Hitchcock and Haneke in this thorny thriller from Germany. The burning of a Quran on a film set – perhaps by accident, perhaps intentionally – kicks off a nail-biting whodunit as the second assistant director tries to save a production and solve the mystery. 18, 19 & 20 Aug

Islands

Here’s another thriller with German origins. Jan-Ole Gerster’s first English-language feature centres on Sam Riley as a rakish tennis coach working at an all-inclusive resort who gets embroiled in a mystery surrounding a missing man and a troubled British couple (played by Stacy and Jack Farthing). The term “Highsmith-esque” has been bandied about in early reviews, which has us sold. 15, 16 & 17 Aug

Low Rider

Campbell X’s knockout debut feature Stud Life, from 2012, was a queer love story and a queer friendship story rolled into one. His second feature, a lyrical road movie following a young woman searching for her estranged father in South Africa, looks to be worth the long 13-year wait. 17, 18 & 19 Aug

Mortician

The bittersweet moral parable A Shire, from Montreal-based Iranian director Abdolreza Kahani, was our pick of last year’s Sean Connery Prize contenders. Kahani has another crack at the competition this year with Mortician, which concerns the unexpected bond that forms between a mild-mannered Iranian mortician living in Canada and a dissident singer. 16, 17 & 18 Aug

Silent Scream

David Hayman’s kaleidoscopic, impressionistic debut feature, Silent Scream, put audiences inside the brilliant but troubled mind of Larry Winters, an inmate at the Barlinnie Special Unit. This brilliant film won the inaugural Michael Powell Award at EIFF in 1990 and then disappeared without a trace. Be sure to catch this lost masterpiece on the big screen, which is playing in celebration of its indomitable producer Paddy Higson, who died earlier this year. 20 Aug

The Tall T

The festival has two dad-friendly retrospectives this year. While it will be fun seeing those James Bond films on the big screen, also make time for The Ranown Cycle, a series of fat-free, slyly subversive low-budget westerns that director Budd Boetticher made with actor Randolph Scott in the late 50s. The Tall T is my favourite of the bunch, although all are worthy of your time. 16 Aug

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Edinburgh International Film Festival takes place at venues across Edinburgh, 14-20 Aug; full programme at edfilmfest.org