November sees the Edinburgh Short Film Festival return for its eighth edition, once again bringing some of the worlds best short films to the city. Now at home in Summerhall and Edinburgh Filmhouse, back in the early00’s festival director Paul Bruce was making films with others in the area when they discovered there was nowhere to show local work. Fast forward to the suggestion of the Leith Festival as a route forward and the rest is history. They filled the back room of Carriers Quarters that first year and continued as part of the Leith Festival till 2010 before launching the ESFF in its own right in 2011.
This year the ESFF has put together one of the UK’s strongest short film programmes, screening 29 award winners, including the Audience Award winner from Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals, the Tribeca Grand Jury Award winners and also the best short films from SXSW, Aspen Shortfest, Palm Springs International Shortfest, London and Brussels Short Film Festivals. There’s also an award winner from Europe’s biggest short film festival Clermont-Ferrand, and a Palme D’or nominated film from Cannes.
On top of that, they are hosting visiting film festival directors from Italy, Ireland and China, affordable (as in around a fiver affordable) workshops on time-lapse photography and workshops on VFX for independent film-makers and not forgetting their legendary closing night party on Saturday, November 10th!
Talking to festival director Paul Bruce it’s clear that he’s keen to widen the perception of what short film is and what it can do. As Paul explains ‘It’s about getting the word out there about how strong short film can be, what you can do with short film. A lot of people in the past used to think it was basically kids jumping on a trampoline or something. Short film at it’s best is free of market forces, filmmakers are not really looking for a demographic or market, so they’re really just expressing their ideas. It’s the purest form of expression in film. The filmmaker has an idea and realises this idea in the best way he can.’
Program highlights include Retukiri Tukiri, a Peruvian love triangle comedy set on a children’s tv show, where the Jhony is in love with Camila, but Camila is in love with Tadeo. The problem is that Tadeo is a dinosaur, which Jhony plays in the show. Linden Space, a collection of animated films made by the students of Priit Pärn, the world famous Estonian cartoonist and animation director also is well worth a look.
Although you might get lucky walking up on the night, tickets usually sell out well in advance for most shows so it’s a good idea to get your tickets from the festival website beforehand.
Get your tickets and view the full program at edinburghshortfilmfestival.com
