EIFF Theme: Cinema And The Written Word

Han¹’s made a big move at the EIFF: this year, for the first time ever, the longest continually running film festival in the world™ will have an official theme.

The EIFF’s new Artistic Director, Hannah McGill, announced today that this year’s Festival, taking place from August 15-26, will have an overarching screenwriting theme – Cinema and the Written Word. The initiative is the first introduced by McGill who took over as Artistic Director following last year’s Festival.

The new theme arises in recognition of the increased international interest in the practice of screenwriting, and the rise to prominence of auteur screenwriters. Through panel events, master classes, workshops and discussions with filmmaker guests, the 61st EIFF will explore approaches to screenwriting and literary adaptation, relationships between screenwriters and directors, and the position of screenwriters within the international film industry.

“The screenwriting theme extends our enduring remit to look beyond the image on the screen in order to explore the structures and individuals who put it there and make it fascinating,” said McGill. “For me, it’s an intriguing shift that writers like Charlie Kaufman and Peter Morgan suddenly have more currency than some directors and that script development is such a focus of the international industry.”

1. No Wikipedia entry for Chimpy? I am shocked, shocked I tell you! Not shocked enough to write one, mind you.↩

Posted at 12pm on 13/02/07 by Jack Mottram to the film category.
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