Edinburgh receives £1.8m cash injection
The UK Film Council has announced £1.8 million Lottery funding for the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) over the next three years, making it the single biggest investment by the Council in a festival to date.
The investment is part of an overall £4.5 million package for UK film festivals to enable them to reach out to a wider audience and increase their global cachet.
The EIFF, which began in 1947 as a documentary-based festival, is the world’s longest continually running film festival. This year the festival will move up from its August slot and will run June 18-29.
UKFC CEO John Woodward said, “The UK Film Council is absolutely delighted to be supporting Edinburgh, our longest- running film festival, to help it massively expand its activities and profile on the world stage. Edinburgh’s ambition is a great one – to make their film festival the world’s leading festival of discovery. This £1.88 million injection of Lottery cash over the next three years will put them well on the way to achieving it. This funding will ultimately benefit all members of the UK film community from production through to distribution.”
EIFF Managing Director Ginnie Atkinson said, “This Lottery funding is a huge endorsement of the Edinburgh Film Festival and its potential for growth. It is an investment in the future of film both for audiences and for the film industry, centred in the UK. The funding is attached to specific activities planned to make EIFF even more effective as a meeting place in the broadest sense of the word; a place where culture, ideas and business can be progressed – and in the unique setting of one of the world’s most amazing cities.”
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