4Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011In 2011, in its 65th year, the Edinburgh International Film Festival is not applying for senior citizenship.Rather, it has grasped both the opportunity and necessity to have a long look in the mirror. It is thrusting its chin out, boldly reinventing and reinvigorating itself, taking the first long strides into its future.There are now over 2,000 film festivals globally, and we're neither able nor willing to compete with the red carpets and star wattage of Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and Venice. We are paying fresh mind to the historic and cultural reputation of our glorious home town. We want to help shout 'Edinburgh' even louder to the world.Glorious Edinburgh - the City of Enlightenment; Britain's crucible of scientific innovation, literature, and modern economics; home to one of the great world universities (and more computer scientists per head of capita than any British city); the guardian of an important and historic military tradition, in a country that has engaged in conflict continuously for over two centuries. Our curation, programming and invitations are informed and inspired by these riches. In the following pages you will see all manner of innovations, and you can read more about them opposite.At EIFF's core is the 60+ feature film programme, proudly offered to the passionate, loyal, local die hard fans of the 'Edinburgh' film - those which thrill and delight, challenge perceptions of what cinema can do, are shown with filmmakers in attendance in unique, exciting presentations, and those which may never see a UK cinema screen again.New British work leads the way - we're thrilled to have the World Premiere of David Hare's first directing outing in 20 years Page Eight, featuring Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon and Judy Davis. We're pleased to be hosting the reunification of David MacKenzie and Ewan McGregor in the new thriller Perfect Sense. Young rising star Felicity Jones (Bill Nighy's daughter in Page Eight) also appears alongside Jessica Brown-Findlay in the elegant coming of age comedy drama Albatross.A diverse range of international cinema is playing, and amongst many highlights, I commend to you the highly anticipated Troll Hunter, and the slightly deranged The Last Circus, which won director Alex de la Iglesia a Silver Lion for Best Director in Venice last year. I am proud the Festival is opening with John McDonagh's darkly funny Irish caper The Guard, starring Brendon Gleeson and Don Cheadle.Documentaries make up a third of the programme, including James Marsh's Project Nim and Danfung Dennis's astounding Sundance winner Hell and Back Again. Ten of these are presented as Joint UK Premieres with the Sheffield Doc/Fest - a major new collaboration. A calm, poetic exploration of climate change explored through the eyes of a boat load of major artists - Laurie Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, KT Tunstall, Marcus Brigstocke and Ryuichi Sakamoto to name a few - is the beautiful, joyous Burning Ice.I strongly urge you to clear as much time from your diaries in the last two weeks of June - there's plenty for everyone in the following pages.James MullighanBeauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.David HumeFROM THE DIRECTOREIFF Nokia Shorts WeekenderEdinburgh International Film Festival 2011A three day celebration of short film. Including workshops, masterclasses and premiere screenings of the eight finalists from the Nokia Shorts 2011 competition.23 - 25 June, 2011.in association with vimeo.com/nokiaVICEUK_Projects_Nokia_Shorts_BrochureAd_159x20.indd 105/05/2011 23:13

All That Heaven Allows5The Festival has been blessed by the participation of Mark Cousins,Tilda Swinton and Lynda Myles.In December and January, they donated their time and passion as artistic advisors, delivering in February a creative blueprint: a cornucopia of ideas, films, people, happenings, poesy and interruptions. The programme is now stuffed and seasoned with contributions from them and their guest curators including Gus Van Sant, Alan Warner, Markus Meissen, Sara Driver and Jim Jarmusch, Mike Skinner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul... It has been a humbling, inspiring experience having these incredible names in my inbox.Take Gus Van Sant, for example. He professed a love for the cinema of Derek Jarman, and so on page 21 you'll see, at the foot of the entry for Blue, 'The Films of Derek Jarman at EIFF 2011 have been programmed by our guest curator, Gus Van Sant.' Here's another example: architect and writer Markus Meissen wants to explore spatial politics, and so we've set aside 24 hours for him at Inspace. I believe you'll have a delightful time browsing the programme, unearthing the truffles of our guest curators' contributions.Alongside the feature films in the programme is a huge selection of film-related events - conversations, debates, experiments, parties and gigs. We've moved theheadquarters of the Festival to Festivalhouse@Teviot - a 'castle in the city', the iconic University of Edinburgh Student Union Building - to accommodate these. We are throwing 63 of them open to the public, many of them for free - in effect, a pop up film school. Rather than the red carpets and galas of yore, you'll find film fans rubbing shoulders with the makers of the films they've just seen, in the bars of the Filmhouse and Festivahouse@Teviot.There are many more new initiatives. Here's a tease:. Project: New Cinephilia is a unique gathering of diverse film critics - established and aspirant - igniting a conversation and stramash on the current film writing landscape;. Sound Tracks A joyous jamboree of all things music on film, with training, seminars, screenings, live demonstrations, gigs and parties;. Reel Science A programme of short and feature film, new and classic, with Q&As from leading UK scientists, supported by the Wellcome Trust; think the Terminator, at the EIFF, with AI and robotics experts on stage afterwards;. The Nokia Shorts Weekender Over 20 screenings, masterclasses, retrospectives, parties . instantly Scotland's biggest celebration of short filmmaking; and. Conflict | reportage For these for these fascinating, rapidly evolving geopolitical times, a comprehensive, thoughtful exploration of modern conflict reportage, in proud partnership with the Frontline Club and UK National Armed Forces Day;There's so much more, as you'll discover leafing through these pages, One more in particular, though: noting the writing on the traditional distribution wall, and determined to offer a platform where new paradigms for filmmakers can be explored, we host the agitants and interruptors, the vanguards of the future: Basetrack, the Bureau, ConditionOne, DazedTV, Dogwoof, Distrify, the Frontline Club, IMDB, MUBI, New Media Scotland, Protein, Rich Pickings, Shooting People, subtlemob.com, ted.com, VICE and Vimeo.It has been an exhilarating (if short) four months putting this big, bold, bolshi, brave new programme together. I'm very proud of it and the team which has supported me, and look forward very much to welcoming you to our great city, and Festival.EIFF 65 - ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS