One of the finest films I saw at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival was the latest John le Carré adaptation, A Most Wanted Man, starring the late, great, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Director Anton Corbijn was in town to carry out some interviews and I was lucky enough to speak to him on behalf of BBC Radio Scotland’s Culture Studio. It’s on the BBC iPlayer (starting around 37 minutes in) for the next seven days and I’ll upload to my Audioboo page soon.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival has been and gone for another year, 11 days of premieres, special events and assorted film madness that I’ve been covering for both BBC Radio Scotland and WOW247.co.uk.
As in previous years (it’s my seventh as press), I’ve been trying to see as many films as possible before interviewing members of the cast and production teams involved. I appeared live on the BBC Radio Scotland Culture Show on 19th June, with two packages being broadcast on the 26th June. My interviews with Cold in July director Jim Mickle and Braveheart star, Brian Cox, will be on iPlayer for a few more days.
I also filmed a number of videos for entertainment website WOW247, a spin-off from my old haunt at the Edinburgh Evening News. As well as attending the opening night film, Hyena, I spoke to Brian Cox about 20 years of Braveheart, met an ex-Hobbit by the name of Elijah Wood and spoke to Don Johnson about his latest film. Those videos, and a few more, can be watched via the website.
It may have finished a week ago, but the memory of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) still lingers around these parts.
That mainly has something do to with the fact that my most recent Edinburgh Evening News column was published in Thursday’s paper but took another 24 hours to make it online, so my thoughts, for what their worth, seem to be some of the last to be published on the EIFF.
Although it’s been a tough few years for the Festival, I think they had been on the right track and that scrapping everything for 2011 was a very bad move. I think there’s a chance that 2012 could see things revert to normal, hopefully with some fresh new ideas from an experienced Artistic Director, but if the current regime stick with this year’s vision then I suspect any goodwill will vanish from distributors, critics and anyone buying tickets.
On a happier note, part of my EIFF interview with IMDB CEO, Col Needham, is now online. I don’t actually say anything in this five minute excerpt, but did manage to get a few questions in there over the 90 minute chat. Click on the image below to take you through to the video:
It’s a big week here in Edinburgh, one which sees the launch of the 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and some major changes for the old girl in her 65th year. As part of the Festival, I’ll be carrying out an on-stage interview with the founder of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Col Needham, on Sunday.
As the EIFF’s focus shifts from being a showcase of films and filmmakers to being a celebration of film (at least I think that’s what’s happening, I raised a few questions in the Edinburgh Evening News on this very subject a few weeks ago), one side effect is that we have some of the great and the good of the online film world making their way to the city.
Col Needham founded IMDb over 20 years ago as a resource for a few film fans, before Amazon bought the site and helped turn it into something most of us have visited at least once – it now receives over 100 million unique visitors per month.
We’ll be discussing the rise of IMDb and how new technologies are helping film fans and filmmakers online, plus a few other topics suggested by the audience. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask Col, let me know in the comments below or via Twitter.
The event takes place on Sunday 19 June at 14.30 in the Teviot Row House Debating Hall.