Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 Programme Announced

The ultra-competitive The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence returns to present a panorama of contemporary international film and exciting new filmmakers. The Competition comprises ten feature-length World Premieres, with the winning filmmaker awarded £50,000 to support their future projects. Decided by an audience vote, the winner will be announced at the end of the Festival and the award is generously supported by The Sean Connery Foundation. 

1. Blue Film - Drawn by the promise of easy money and anonymous sex, queer camboy Aaron Eagle (Moore) is shocked to discover a personal connection with the mysterious stranger (Birney) who has paid for his company. Over the course of one night, the two men engage in a war of words and emotions as they wrestle with the impact of a tainted and shared past. Powered by extraordinary performances, a tight script and an elegant visual style, this unusual thriller makes for a shocking and highly compelling cinematic experience.
2. Concessions - This gorgeously filmed US comedy brings an appealing vitality and soul to its story of a rundown cinema on the day of closure and the various intersecting lives of its staff and customers. Propelled by a witty and weirdly lyrical script, great performances and some unexpected cameos, this is a fresh, funny and robust ode to cinema in a time of uncertainty over its future.
3. In Transit - An enigmatic painter (Ehle) invites a young bartender to pose for her as a strange, confusing relationship develops that will change both women forever. Beautifully written by Sarrigeorgiou (who also stars) and gorgeously shot with painterly compositions, its crisp, visual flair is matched by the strength and depth of the performances. An elegant, subtle drama with a chilly edge, this is a restrained and emotionally intelligent exploration of selfish desires, hidden motivations and what it really takes to know yourself.
4. Low Rider - A young British woman embarks on a road trip in South Africa to find her estranged father, aided by a charismatic stranger on the way. The elusiveness of her father forms the foundation of her fragile sense of self as she tentatively starts to build new relationships. Powered by finely drawn characters and a freewheeling narrative, this is a vivid and visually striking queer road movie that has a strong message of self-empowerment at its core. A film that is brimming with character and heart, it is a sensitive and beautifully performed exploration of identity, resilience and self-confidence.
5. Best Boy - Three adult children and their mother reunite after the death of their abusive father, engaging in a strange, cruel competition that shaped their childhood. As the games play out, hidden truths emerge, relationships crumble and violence ensues. Sharply scripted and featuring expert use of music to create an absurd, unpredictable environment, this is a bold, original and blackly comic satire that fearlessly skewers social constructs, the nuclear family and toxic masculinity.
6. Mortician - Director Abdolreza Kahani (A SHRINE) returns to EIFF with another entirely original and gripping character study and puzzle piece. A reclusive mortician faces an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding, their bond providing the beating heart of this disarmingly elegant film. Combining a distinctive, lo-fi visual style, naturalistic performances and familiar wit and humanity, Kahani’s new film is utterfly distinctive and affecting with a gut punch ending that will leave audiences reeling.
7. Novak - An ostracised Croatian neuroscientist is drawn out of hiding in Athens by an activist group of idealistic young scientists fascinated by his previously discredited theories about electromagnetic pollution. As egos swell and actions take momentum, the community they form starts to unravel. The film is fuelled by a grungy, lo-fi, sci-fi energy as it takes its swerving turns, offset by a disarmingly surreal sense of place. An offbeat, intriguing exploration of idol worship, consumerism and non-conformity in the modern world, this is dark, unpredictable and humourous in equal measure.
8. On the Sea - The humdrum contentment and daily routine of a married mussel farmer are thrown into chaos by the arrival of a mysterious stranger in novellist and filmmaker Helen Walsh’s beautiful, erotic love story set on the Welsh coast. With its elegant visual style, powerful performances and disarmingly frank script, this is queer cinema at its most candid, sensual and raw.
9. Once you shall be one of those who lived long ago - An affecting, gorgeously crafted documentary about the remaining people in Malmberget in north Sweden, a small town slowly collapsing into the mines beneath it. As residents reflect on the once vibrant community, the town itself is gradually dismantled around them. Beautifully shot, with a dreamy, otherworldly sense of place and time, and featuring warm, interesting characters whose stoicism is accompanied by a deeper sadness. Haunting, reflective and deeply cinematic, this is a dignified and thoughtful rumination on change, loss and grief alongside the strength of community and the resilience of the natural world.
10. Two Neighbours - A wealthy socialite (Cherry) and a struggling writer (Chalotra) are thrown together at a debauched party in this remarkable satire of greed and excess with a supernatural twist in the tale. With its striking visual language, extravagant production design and brilliantly committed performances this is an acidly funny and wildly entertaining film from an exciting new talent in cinema.

Gripping and thoughtful stories of iconoclastic voices and unlikely connections make up this year’s Out of Competition strand, which showcases a selection of World, International and UK Premieres. Amongst these is the Opening Night film, Eva Victor’s eagerly awaited black comedy Sorry, Baby,  and the Closing Night film, the World Premiere of Paul Sng’s unmissable, kaleidoscopic Irvine Welsh documentary Reality Is Not Enough.

This year’s Lynda Myles Celebrates film is Lucio Castro’s After This Death, a captivating erotic thriller that explores grief, obsession and the haunting power of fleeting, intense connections with a cast including Mia Maestro, Lee Pace and Rupert Friend. The screening is introduced by producer, screenwriter and former EIFF Director Lynda Myles.

• Catch James Bond on the big screen with a special strand of the six original Bond films starring Sean Connery. Sacred Bonds includes 4K restorations of Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger all introduced by a series of soon to be announced special guests. 
• Long championed by Martin Scorsese, Budd Boetticher: The Ranown Cycle presents five thrilling, compact and beautiful films directed by Budd Boetticher which represent the apotheosis of the Western genre and feature classic Hollywood movie star Randolph Scott. These 4K restorations are presented in collaboration with Edinburgh Film Guild, one of the world’s oldest continuously running films. The films are The Tall T, Buchanan Rides Alone, Comanche Station, Decision At Sundown and Ride Lonesome.
• This EIFF25 programme plays host to 6 Special Retrospective Screenings which are Mikhail Kalatozov’s hugely influential Palme D’Or winner The Cranes Are Flying (1957); Doug Liman’s kinetic black comedy Go (1999); Alexander Mackendrick’s classic Ealing comedy The Man In The White Suit (1951); a 40th anniversary screening of Michael Hoffman’s much loved Restless Natives; Glasgow set Red Road (2006); a 35th anniversary screening of David Hayman’s searing underground Scottish classic Silent Scream.

• Director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void, One to One: John & Yoko) speaking with his brother, producer Andrew Macdonald (Trainspotting, Civil War, 28 Years Later), in a wide-ranging conversation about filmmaking and their respective careers. 
• Trailblazing filmmaker Nia Da Costa will discuss her acclaimed work which spans independent film, horror sequels and major studio comic book adaptations including The Marvels, Candyman and upcoming film 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
• From breakout horror thriller Kill List to EIFF Midnight Madness Opening Film Bulk, via hilarious black comedy Sightseers and many more, Filmmaker Ben Wheatley and long time producing partner Andy Starke will discuss their collaborations and their working dynamic.
• Award-winning writer and director Andrea Arnold is one of the UK’s most outstanding filmmakers. She will discuss her searing debut feature Red Road, also screening at EIFF this year, which won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut in 2006, along with her critically acclaimed work such as Fish Tank, American Honey, Cow and, most recently, Bird.

Ferocious new midnight movies include:

• Grace Glowicki’s lo-fi, punk riff on Frankenstein Dead Lover;
• Julie Pacino’s darkly humorous psychological horror debut about female pain and identity I Live Here Now;
• Gerard Johnson’s tightly wound and darkly hilarious new thriller Odyssey
• and Matthew & Kevin McManus’s grittily inventive and unpredictable spin on revenge thrillers and the time travel genre Redux Redux.

These titles will be complemented by short and savage films screenings ahead of the main features including James Ley’s Sleazy Tiger, Alex Thompson’s Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting, Christopher Greenslate’s Drainomania, Willy Fair’s Death’s Peak and Elly Howard’s TOE. 

• The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition presents the World Premieres of new exciting work from Scotland, the UK and International filmmakers all competing for a £15,000 cash prize in honour of legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

• Out of Competition Shorts offers a powerhouse programme showcasing some of the most extraordinary storytelling from across the globe, from Scotland and America to Sweden and Brazil. Reckonings with the past connect this year’s selection of astonishing short films, including meditative documentaries and heartbreaking queer stories. The EIFF25 programme brings these remarkable films to the UK for the first time
• The Festival will also present the World Premiere of six short films created through the inaugural NFTS Sean Connery Talent Lab.
• Joining the EIFF25 programme, Animation Shorts explore the infinite possibilities of animation with a stunning programme of inventive, expressive and entirely unique tales from around the world including the world premiere of THEY, a new short from director Renée Zellweger. 
• From the microscopic to the planetary, the Festival’s Experimental Shorts programme traces the invisible threads between nature, identity and power. These films explore bodies, systems and imagined futures, blending poetic vision with political urgency.
• EIFF is also pleased to partner with Scottish Documentary Institute to present the short documentary films created through the Bridging the Gap training programme. Inner forces and outside influences shape this collection of short films which offer surprising, intimate and poetic insights of contemporary Scotland.