It all ends for another year. The curtains have closed on EIFF 2012, everyone can get back to something resembling a normal life and cinema staff in Edinburgh can stop being irritated by a swarm of people turning up at free screening after free screening to try and catch “the next big thing”.
The more observant amongst you may realise that I say the same thing pretty much every year in my overview of the festival and the movies viewed but that’s because I think it’s important to acknowledge the mixture of sadness and relief that accompanies the end of it all and to give thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.
EIFF 2012 was a resounding success. As Adam Whyte said in his ongoing festival commentary for What Culture (and I’m just paraphrasing him here, not directly quoting) the festival was back to having a presence in Edinburgh, as opposed to last year, the strange and low-key affair that didn’t really work out all that well in hindsight. Celebrities were back in force, the Michael Powell Award was back were once again being doled out and Chris Fujiwara made himself a favourite amongst many critics with his superb job as the artistic director of the festival.
I didn’t get to spot any celebs this year (with the exception of the affable Mark Cousins, a man who I didn’t dare speak to after shamefully reminding myself that I had yet to see his celebrated Story Of Film) but I did get to meet Patrick Gamble (who writes here and also for Cinevue) after semi-stalking him by checking his real-life face against his Twitter pic. Yes, I’m afraid that’s very true. It was worth it though, if just to be able to greet a colleague in passing as we moved between our various screenings. Despite my hectic schedule, I did try to see as many movies as possible. One or two were films I didn’t want to miss (namely, Grabbers and V/H/S) while all of the others were chosen by my tried and tested “highlighting a bunch of stuff that’s playing while I have free time” technique. Hey, it works.
Fellow Flickfeaster Chris Bale was also trying to see a few movies, though he did have a much busier work schedule and the not insignificant matter of his wedding to get ready for (yes, congratulate the man as he’s now a happy husband). It’s a shame that our paths didn’t cross but anyone looking to attend the festival in future years would do well to read this handy guide written by someone giving the whole thing a fresh perspective.
Here are the movies. Time always works against us but there should be something here for everyone.
Grabbers
Killer Joe
The Imposter
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Fred
No Man’s Zone
Dr Seuss’ The Lorax
Don’t Expect Too Much
The Rest Of The World
Never Too Late
One Mile Away
The Lifeguard
The Fourth Dimension
The Unspeakable Act
God Bless America
V/H/S
Here, There
Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal
Unconditional
Berberian Sound Studio
Brake
Exit Elena
Tabu
Dragon
Tim And Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
NFA
The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus
Flying Blind
Kid-Thing/Kid-Thing
Brave
Guinea Pigs
And that is that. All that remains for me to do is, as ever, thank all of the wonderful staff involved (many volunteers help run the EIFF and do a sterling job), give a special thanks to The Cameo, The Filmhouse and Cineworld, a huge thank you to those who put together the lovely press packs for this year and . . . . . . . . . We can’t wait to do it all over again next year.
Cheers.
