THE Edinburgh International Film Festival appears to have been saved after Screen Scotland bought the rights to the event.
The national funding body - that drives the development of the Scottish film and TV industry - announced on Thursday it has acquired the intellectual property rights and has launched an appraisal period to explore the possibilities of hosting a film festival in the capital next year.
The appraisal is being led by Kristy Matheson, who was creative director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2022, and colleagues. They will be supported by the Edinburgh International Festival.
In a statement, Screen Scotland said the work will be funded by an award of up to £97,647 from Creative Scotland, which was drawn from the original cash allocated to Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) for 2022/23.
CMI entered administration in October when it said it was "facing the perfect storm of sharply rising costs, in particular energy costs, alongside reduced trade due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis."
This additionally led to the closure of the Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen.
Since the demise of CMI, Screen Scotland has been in discussions with administrators and other partners to explore options for cultural cinema programme activity in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as well as the possibility of a 2023 edition of Edinburgh’s film festival.
The film festival celebrated its 75th anniversary in August and is the world's oldest continually running film festival.
