A TOP Scottish film critic has claimed the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is “created in London” before arriving in Scotland.
Siobhan Synnot was interviewed on BBC’s Sunday Show about the upcoming festival, where she criticised a lack of jobs, submission selections and tax revenue for Scots.
After praising some of the output at this year’s event, Synott went on to address why so few Scots are involved in the festival, saying: “There are also some questions though.
“I mean, one question is why all the jobs at the Edinburgh Film Festival Shorts as shorts programmers and 90% of jobs as submission viewers for the festival have been given to people based outside of Scotland this year.
“This is a festival that gets by largely through Scottish public funding, including Creative Scotland money and Scottish Government expo fund money, it offers a platform for Scottish filmmaking but these jobs are also a stepping stone for other people in the industry, and yet all the shorts programmers are London-based.”
Synott went on to say that Edinburgh is trying to “put out a message” that there will be a celebration of film in the capital this summer, but “90% of the people who select the films live outside of Scotland”.
She said the percentage of Scots on the submission panels was “worse than last year” and that industry insiders had told her these were “very poor optics”, suggesting a “film festival created in London and shipped up to Edinburgh for ten days”.
Additionally, Synnott criticised the lack of young Scots gaining entry to the film industry during the festival and the fact that tax revenue from jobs will also “go out of Scotland” despite funding coming primarily from Scottish public money.
Responding to Bella Caledonia reports, festival director Paul Ridd said: “Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Programme champions a new generation of Scottish, UK and international film talent and we hugely benefit from input from Programmers and Submissions Viewers from Scotland and all around the world, including recent graduates from The University of Edinburgh and the NFTS, international film critics and film professionals.
“We are also proud of the brilliant work done by our Scotland-based staff across programme planning, marketing, production, technical, events and guest services.
“This is a team effort, placing EIFF on the global stage. We could not be prouder of our team and our Festival’s truly international reach.”
