Edinburgh Film Festival ‘created in London’
A renowned Scottish film critic has claimed that the Edinburgh Film Festival is ‘created in London and shipped up to Edinburgh for ten days’ amongst claims that ‘ 90% of the people who select the films live outside Scotland and are London-based.’
On the BBC’s Sunday Show the film critic Siobhan Synnot was interviewed for what was supposed to be a softball piece about the Edinburgh Film Festival.
Synnot said: “This is the second year of Festival Director Paul Ridd … We’ve got a lot that looks interesting … we’ve got an opening film Sorry Baby a first film for the director Eva Victor and could well be one for those that enjoyed After Sun at the festival a few years ago. The closing film’s a documentary on Irvine Welsh Reality is Not Enough. Irvine Welsh a popular choice a populist subject as well because this is the third documentary about him in two years and the second the Edinburgh film festival have included in their lineup in two years, we’ve got Andrew Macdonald, Chair of the Edinburgh film festival board in conversation with his brother Kevin Macdonald, we’ve got British director Ben Wheatley along to discuss his new film, we’ve got independent film maker Andrea Arnold also making an appearance and a conversation with Nea de Costa who has just directed the sequel to 28 Days Later, which is produced by Kevin McDonald (!) …”
But she went on to say:
“Look there are also some questions though … I mean one question is why all the jobs all the jobs at the Edinburgh Film Festival as shorts programmers – and 90% of those jobs as submissions viewers for the festival have been given to people based outside Scotland this year. I mean this is a festival that gets by largely by Scottish public funding including Creative Scotland and Scottish Government Expo money – it’s a platform for Scottish filmmaking – but these jobs are also a stepping-stone for other people in the industry – and yet ALL the shorts programmers are London-based?”
Synnot continues:
“Edinburgh is trying to put out a message that there is a film party happening in August – and yet as I say 90% of the people who select the films live outside Scotland and are London-based, that’s worse than their figures last year and industry figures were saying to me last week that this is very poor optics. It suggests an Edinburgh film festival created in London and shipped up to Edinburgh for ten days, something I’m sure the festival would rebut. But also these jobs are key to young people trying to gain experience and a foot in the film ladder – appointing only one Scot as a submission viewer means that Scots missed out on valuable jobs and experience and of course, the taxes on these jobs go out of Scotland too. This is the oldest film festival in the world – you know curation is not a new idea to the Edinburgh Festival and yet and yet and yet … we have these jobs not being made available to Scots.”
You can listen to the interview here [between 1.13.43 and 1.20.40].
Of course, we asked the EIFF for a response.
Paul Ridd at the Film Festival said: “Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Programme champions a new generation of Scottish, UK and international film talent and we hugely benefit from input from Programmers and Submissions Viewers from Scotland and all around the world, including recent graduates from The University of Edinburgh and the NFTS, international film critics and film professionals. We are also proud of the brilliant work done by our Scotland-based staff across Programme Planning, Marketing, Production, Technical, Events and Guest Services. This is a team effort, placing EIFF on the global stage. We could not be prouder of our team and our Festival’s truly international reach.”
It is a disappointing response to a disappointing situation, that feeds the impression that our cultural institutions are not of us or for us or by us { see also for eg The Traitors, another Ofcom and BBC Failure for Scotland]. It’s noted that none of Siobhan Synnot’s numbers are disputed.
Her criticisms deserve a serious response, not least because, as she points out, the EIFF is the recipient of considerable Scottish public funding – in fact it was saved by Screen Scotland after its parent company, the Centre for the Moving Image, collapsed into administration in 2022.
Look for Elena Lazic in this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival programme. because Elena isn’t just London-based, she is also Paul Ridd’s longtime partner.
He gave her a job last year AND this year as a submissions viewer. He gave another position in the submissions team to her twin sister Manuela Lazic, and brought the two of them up to host screenings last year. Check their X and Facebook accounts for evidence of a very cosy relationship
Paul Ridd has never been to a Ceilidh but has been to a Ceilidh related event!.
If Scottish arts orgs keep employing folk with no understanding of, or care for the place and the people, what do you expect. Nothing reveals the parochial mind more than it’s worship of the metropolitan. The grand only appear grand because we are on our knees. Let us rise!
Just so.
Looks like Siobhan Synnot took a day off from her raging transphobia to go after the festival.
Quite funny really that she’s been relentlessly negative about the festival since its closure and the return of the Filmhouse in particular yet was happy to host a q&a for them at the weekend.
I suspect Siobhan is just rather bitter deep down. One of those old and tired journalists that have been quietly moved on and just lashing out. Sad really.
Play the ball not the player! Slagging is never a cogent argument!
Below are the names of the people who organize and run the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Guess what?
Almost all of them are Basques, as is easy enough to tell from their names, from director Rebordinos down…
Not the juries which award the prizes of course, they are ALWAYS international guests…
This is absolutely the norm for every film festival in Europe, except in neo-colonial Britain where, under the guise of diversity, those in power in the SNP hierarchy and their pals in London go about destroying the distinctiveness of a Scottish film perspective for the one event we have – make that had – in the international film calendar.
Why is San Seabstian such a great festival? Precisely because it is a Basque festival…
Director
• José Luis Rebordinos
Deputy Directors
• Maialen Beloki
• Lucía Olaciregui
Finance Director
• Amaia Elizondo
Management Committee
• Maialen Beloki
• Amaia Elizondo
• Joxean Fernández
• Lucía Olaciregui
• Ruth Pérez de Anucita
Selection Committee
• Maialen Beloki
• Quim Casas
• Roberto Cueto
• Desirée de Fez
• Joxean Fernández
• Juan G. Andrés
• Ione Hernández Sáenz
• Victor Iriarte
• Esperanza Luffiego
• Javier Martín
• Lucía Olaciregui
• Ruth Pérez de Anucita
• José Luis Rebordinos
• Ana Esperanza Redondo
Head of Industry
• Saioa Riba
Communication Manager
• Ruth Pérez de Anucita
Spanish Press
• Koro Santesteban
Foreign Press
• Gemma Beltrán
https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/organization/1/31/in
I don’t think the SNP are directly responsible for the EIFF situation, but Creative Scotland and other funders should surely ask for better return for their funding, and the SNP are responsible for the general lack of coherence and strategy about much of this. Why is any of this okay?
I think in any European country, the Minister of Culture is ultimately responsible for everything, that is to say, he is paid a salary from the public purse and receives a nice state pension to look after the national culture and, when required, pick up the phone, call the influential people in question together and find solutions to problem which arise…
But that is what happens in European countries. What happens in neo-colonial neo-liberal Britain is that Robertson basically acts as a cheerleader for foreign investment… end of…
The Edinburgh International Film Festival was created at the same time as Cannes, the same time as Venice, and the same time as San Sebastian, within a few years give or take. Those three festivals are still the big film festivals on the international calendar.
The legacy of the EIFF has been squandered by one government after another to such an extent that the Glasgow Film Festival has more or less overtaken Edinburgh..
If you want a conclusive sign of national decline and decades long contempt for film in Scotland by the powers-that-be, look no further than the shipwreck of the EIFF…
To be fair, Angus Robertson also attends lots of receptions with drinks and canapés as well as having secret meetings with Israel’s deputy ambassador. He has a busy diary. We must not expect too much of him.
Anyway, it’s all the usual elitest stuff from the people who run the UK film industry… They don’t even pretend to be democratic…
I read not long ago “Stairway to Heaven: Rebuilding the British Film Industry” by Geoff MacNab. It’s the story of the UK industry – as opposed to its films – from the nadir year of 1984 to 2016 or so…
The book is about 250 pages long. The word Scotland appears just once in the book.
Northern Ireland and Wales, not once even. Likewise Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester…
It’s all about Dicky Attenborough calling Thatcher to get her ear, and the Oxbridge chaps calling “Gordon” to help them with tax credits etc and such like completely undemocratic, opaque and old-boys-network kind of antics…
This is public money. In a 21st century European democracy… It’s outrageous.
The UK film industry is an absolute travesty, a democratic outrage and the SNP just go along with it.. probably because they know nothing about it.
MacNab rightly points out that, while as an industry, the UK film industry may have become an economic success story – thanks mainly to all the US productions which come to shoot in the UK and qualify as British + Harry Potter + James Bond – in terms of film-makers with distinct voices, it was probably better back in the late 1980’s, certainly no worse than it is now…
It simply wouldn’t wash in Europe where they have things like Constitutions…
Indeed, Douglas. As is clear from Colin McArthur’s analysis in the essays contained in the collection ‘Cinema, Culture, Scotland’ (2024), what passes for support for film in this country remains based on the commercially-oriented, neoliberal model established by Michael Forsyth shortly before devolution. In the 25 years of the Scottish Parliament’s existence, Lab-Lib and SNP Governments have had neither the wit nor the inclination to change that.
Absolute LOL at Synnot being called a renowned critic.
Feel free to respond to the actual argument
This is shocking.
Many ‘Scottish’ events are often not very Scottish at all.
They may take place in Scotland – but they may be no more Scottish than a touring roadshow (eg last year’s Taylor Swift concerts).
It’s too often the case that Scotland is run by England, for England.
The Edinburgh Film Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Fringe, Book and Festival take place in Scotland, but they happen during the English school holidays – Scottish schools go back earlier while the festivals are still on, making it difficult for Scottish families to attend.
Last month’s UX Scotland conference is another example.
Sure, it took place in Edinburgh.
But it was organised by Software Acumen, based in Cambridge, England.
I wish it wasn’t necessary, but we need a Culture Minister and agency dedicated to decolonising Scotland’s culture from English domination!
There’s a retrospective of Sean Connery’s James Bond films. What more do you want?
This is a really important subject. Not just about EIFF but wider Scottish cultural and public life.
Well done to Bella bringing it to wider currency.
Two thoughts. This is the sort of issue the recent Irish Pages Scotland special should have been exploring rather than the nostalgiafest it presented. Second, what are the SNP doing culturally? 20 years in. Creative Scotland take some of the blame; Angus Robertson some more with his love of polite middle class society; but the main responsibility falls squarely on the Scottish Govt and SNP.
The main responsibility does not rest with the Scottish Government Most Arts organisations are charities with boards who appoint the employees and develop policy. These boards often lack commitment to indigenous culture either because the are not indigenous or lack respect for Scottish cultural products. Scots folk scared of being thought not diverse or cool.
Sheena Wellington——“ If they thought they ate deep fried horseshit in Islington, the arts workers in Scotland would lap it up”
If Scotland’s cultural institutions are failing us – and they frequently are – it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government to address that.
The Scottish government can make policies to ensure indigenous involvement. How are you going to get timid scots to take up the places in cultural orgs? I have created and been on cultural/education projects for 40 years. Time and again I have seen Scots folk defer to the educated middle class english voice and within a few years the new cultural leaders look around and think “Perhaps we should engage with the indigenous community” I don’t blame those folk with connections and confidence for this. They haven’t “Taken over” The Scots have stepped aside. There is still very much a Scottish cringe, particularly in the Scottish middle classes. It reminds me of the outrage in the Anglo Irish in Dublin when Playboy of the Western World was put on before the revolution, and the objections to Traditional music in the theatre in the 1950’s as being overtly Nationalistic and not encouraging diversity. Now trad musicians are the Darlings of the Irish bourgeoisie.When in the 1990’s and beyond we created Organisations dedicated to the promotion of Scots Music,Song Dance,History and language, it was the Labour party in the council that objected most strongly to our programme for the same reasons. We won through by sheer force of popular participation, and they went back to playing their ColdPlay records. (Pair souls!) Colonised peoples need en .. courage ment!
A policy on Scottish representation and understanding of culture could be part of all Scot Govt grant aid.
It would be excellent to get to the bottom of how Scotland’s cultural institutions actually work, and what exactly the role of the Scottish Minister of Culture is in the organnizational chart, because I simply don’t understand it, something which is part and parcel of the opaque nature of nearly everything public in Britain today – we’re not meant to understand it…
I suspect Stan Reeves knows something I don’t for example and he is certainly right that the Centre For The Moving Image, which ran the Filmhouse and the EIFF before going under, is registered as a charity and indeed its webpage no longer exists.
So, where is the government oversight in the faceless burueacrats / “servants of charity” who managed to run things so badly that they succeeded in bankrupting the Filmhouse?
Will we ever get the full story about how that happened? I mean, they received substantial sums of public money over the years.
Presumably some of those who ran the Centre For The Moving Image (a silly name) were actually knowledgable about film, but probably plenty others were not.
Will we ever even get to know their names?
Zero accountability, zero transparency, zero engagement with the wider film community in Edinburgh…
It’s patrician Britain in a word, a country run by “the people who know best”…
The “people who know best” and end up, presumably through contacts from Edinburgh private schools and such like, invited to join the board of an arts “charity” which receives hundreds and thousands of pounds of public money, and when things go badly, disppear, into the mist…
Carpet-baggers in all but name, the “people who know best” are the opaque managerial class who have been draining the lifesblood out of Scottish culture for 30 years, it is high time they were kicked out and a new model of arts institution based on accountability, transparency and public engagement installed…
It’s just not good enough from the SNP at all… What a huge disappointment they have been and never fail to be…
Scotland’s archaic and opaque public appointments system plays an important part in perpetuating this cultural stagnation. Scottish Ministers don’t want to be accused of appointing their pals to public bodies, so they leave the process of drafting role specifications, selecting cadidates and conducting interviews largely in the hands of senior civil servants, giving them considerable power. The senior civil servants tend to favour people they regard as ‘safe’ and ‘establishment’, with similar class backgrounds to their own, hence the preponderance of lawyers, accountants, retired civil servants, clapped-out bankers, and sundry other nonentities on the Boards of Scotland’s public bodies.
But are quangos the same thing as public appointments?
The people who were on the board of The Centre for the Moving Image aren’t public appointments in any case, they weren’t on a salary. If they were, they would be expected to be transparent and provide strict accountability.
What actually was the process with The Centre for the Moving Image?It delcares itself insolvent, okay, so how is the brand of the EIFF transferred to the people who are now in charge of the EIFF?
The main figure on the board of the EIFF is Andrew MacDonald, who is a well-known film producer.
From Andrew’s point of view, he probably thinks he is doing Edinburgh and Scotland a favour by keeping the EIFF going. He’s not a festival administrator, he’s a film producer, and he was drafted in as I understand it, to scramble together the EIFF in extremis when the Filmhouse closed down overnight, with no prior warning…
I imagine they have very little money which explains why he and his brother feature so heavily in the programme’s conversations and talks…
In Europe, this would have gone out to public tender. The ministry of culture would have said, we want to run a festival of a certain size over five years, send me your bids and your proposals. That hasn’t happened here as I understand it…
We are talking about Scotland’s only international annual premier film event… Where is Angus Robertson in all of this?
The only conclusion that you can come to is that they want to turn everything into a charity, except wheeling and dealing, crony spiv capitalism…
The whole charity thing is a cop out and part of Margaret Thatcher’s stated plan to gut the welfare state..
Food banks instead of unemployment benefit, charity shops littering our high streets like a plague where once there were local shops and businesses, sacrificed to the supermarkets without so much as a murmur of protest, and charity arts quangos run by “the people who know best”, instead of serious film professionals who actually know what they’re doing…
But that’s the plan: turn the whole country into a pound shop…
The first thing I would do by the way if I had any hand whatsoever in Scottish film would be to make a documentary film about the Edinburgh International Film Festival, explaining its origins (in documentary) to its heyday between 1969-1980 roughly under Lynda Miles and what happened thereafter…
Most people in Scotland won’t know anything about it, which is hardly democratic given they have been co-financing it for 70 years…
It neednt be a great documentary, but the story really ought to be told…
You need to use what you’ve got as a country, and that just hasn’t been the case with the EIFF for a long time now…
They are not. But they are part of the picture, and similar considerations apply to board appontments across Scotland’s public sphere.
People appointed to public bodies are not always salaried. They get expenses.
I agree about the approach that should have been taken to securing the future of the EIFF. The rescue looks to have been cobbled together. As I say, the processes involved are archaic and opaque. They badly need an overhaul to make them much more transparent.