Image: Film still from The Illusionist, the opening film of Edinburgh Film Festival 2010

Film festivals are not all alike. Whether it’s London, Cannes, Toronto or Venice, they each have a distinct personality and their own unique quirks. Toronto is known for its orderly queueing system and mammoth programme with hundreds of films. It would perhaps be the orderly Aunt of the film festival family, young and with a finger on the pulse. Venice on the other hand profiles glitzy Hollywood films which attract the big stars such as George Clooney but is also rumoured to be a little chaotic, with stories of films being delayed for hours and eventually screened in the early hours of the morning. Venice could be the flamboyant, eccentric grandfather (it is, after all, the oldest film festival in the world).  And Cannes of course, being the old stalwart of film festivals, would be the Mother, ever so glamorous and with a commitment to showing the most accomplished cinema in the world.

So, I know what you’re all asking, who would Edinburgh International Film Festival (who have today announced their programme) be? The EIFF is the longest continually running film festival in the world but as their film choices over the last few years have shown, they’re increasingly positioning themselves as a festival that profiles emerging talent. More than once it’s been described as the ‘Sundance of the UK’ (another festival which surely would be the young, hipster son or daughter!).

At Edinburgh this year there are almost 40 films showing in the Rosebud strand which profile first and second time directors and there are two additional strands for filmmakers working on the fringes of cinema. Night Moves is a late night programme which includes the Greek zombie comedy Evil in the Time of Heroes which stars none other than Billy Zane (remember him?). Under the Radar screens the more riskier titles including Cigarette Girl, a film set in the future where smokers have been confined to the outskirts of a city.  There is also an impressive short film programme which include documentary and animations from the world’s up-and-coming directors.  And of course we have to mention our own event, called Sound:Image: Art, where the fruits of our Roderick Buchanan Audio-Visual project will be shown.

So where does that leave EIFF in the festival family? I reckon it could be the father of the group, a very cool dad who’s using years of experience to hunt out the newest talent.  A grown up Sundance but with a little history on its side.

P.S. This year we’re also hoping to get two CenSta members on board to help report from the festival in a creative and exciting way.  Update: Ben Werdmuller and  Sasha de Buyl-Pisco are our two bloggers for EIFF 2010.