John McPhail’s Scottish family comedy Grow, starring Golda Rosheuvel, Nick Frost and Alan Carr, and Campbell X’s BFI-backed Low Rider are among the 18 world premieres selected for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), taking place from August 14-20 in Scotland.
Low Rider is one of 10 films competing for the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, which comes with a £50,000 prize determined by audience vote. The film is a UK-South Africa co-production that follows the adventures of a woman as she flies from London to Cape Town to search for her absent father and stars Emma McDonald and Thishiwe Ziqubu.
The competition line-up also includes Helen Walsh’s second feature, On The Sea, which took part in the Cannes Great 8 showcase. The film explores masculinity and desire in a remote fishing community, and stars Barry Ward.
Grow, by Scottish director McPhail, is screening out of competition. Starring Rosheuvel, best known for Dune and Bridgerton, it is about a curmudgeonly pumpkin farmer who takes in her newly discovered niece from an orphanage.
Co-stars include Jane Horrocks and Dominic McLaughlin, who is also set to play Harry Potter in the upcoming TV series. Sky will release the film in the UK and Ireland.
The EIFF programme includes a total of 43 features – a slight increase from 37 last year – spanning countries including the UK, US, Ireland, Canada, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Croatia, Palestine, Iran, France, Turkey, Australia, Brazil and Japan.
“We had a significant increase in the number of submissions we received this year,” said EIFF CEO and festival director Paul Ridd, with submissions up to 4,000 across features and shorts from 2,500 last year. “It’s been a difficult process for narrowing [the Sean Connery award] down to just 10, but the films we have are all really strong. They speak to a wide range of genres and perspectives, and a broad vision of cinema at this point in time.
“We’ve got everything from thriller to dramas to political work. With quite a tight selection, the key principle that drives us is the quality.”
Scroll down for the full line-up
Barnaby Roper’s UK mystery thriller All The Devils Are Here is also making its world premiere out of competition. Eddie Marsan and Sam Claflin lead the cast of the thriller about a group of thieves hiding out in Dartmoor. It is the feature debut of music video director Roper.
Burn Gorman, Tienne Simon, Suki Waterhouse and Rory Kinnear also star.
The festival will host a celebration of the work of US low-budget Western filmmaker Budd Boetticher, as well as the Sacred Bonds strand of 4K restorations of the six original Bond films starring Sean Connery.
As previously announced, the festival will open with Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby and close with the world premiere of Paul Sng’s Irvine Welsh documentary Reality Is Not Enough.
EIFF’s In Conversation strand has expanded from last year’s line-up of three talks. Kevin Macdonald will speak in conversation with his brother, producer and EIFF chair Andrew Macdonald. Nia DaCosta, Ben Wheatley (whose film Bulk world premieres as the opening night film of the Midnight Madness strand) alongside Andy Starke, and Andrea Arnold will also take part.
The shorts programme sees the return of the £15,000 Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition; six shorts world premiere as part of the inaugural NFTS Sean Connery Talent Lab; and They, an animated short directed by Renée Zellweger, is among further world premieres.
This year’s industry programme runs across the whole of the festival, having taken place across only the opening weekend last year. More details on industry events will follow in the next few weeks.
Key venues include the revived Filmhouse, the Cameo, Vue Omni, National Gallery of Scotland’s Hawthornden Theatre and the Tollcross Central Hall, which will be earmarked as the festival’s hub for the first time. “That will be a gamechanger for us,” said Ridd. “It gives us a specific area where people can engage with our In Conversation events, panels, and also just meet and do business.”
Ridd, who took over leadership of the festival for last year’s edition and has now been living in Edinburgh for 18 months, added: “I hope that this programme and what we deliver in August is testament to the potential of this festival going forward to grow, and for its international standing to grow.”
EIFF 2025 line
*denotes world premiere
Sorry, Baby (US-Sp-Fr) – opening night film
Dir. Eva Victor
Reality Is Not Enough (UK) – closing night film*
Dir. Paul Sng
The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence
Best Boy (Can)*
Dir. Jesse Noah Klein
Blue Film (US)*
Dir. Elliot Tuttle
Concessions (US)*
Dir. Mas Bouzidi
In Transit (US)*
Dir. Jaclyn Bethany
Low Rider (UK-S Afr)*
Dir. Campbell X
Mortician (Can)*
Dir. Abdolreza Kahani
Novak (Greece-Switz)*
Dir. Harry Lagoussis
On The Sea (UK)*
Dir. Helen Walsh
Once You Shall Be One Of Those Who Lived Long Ago (Swe)*
Dirs. Alexander Rynéus, Per Bifrost
Two Neighbors (UK-US)*
Dir. Ondine Viñao
Out of Competition
About A Hero (Ger-Den-US)
Dir. Piotr Winiewicz
All The Devils Are Here (UK)*
Dir. Barnaby Roper
Brides (UK)
Dir. Nadia Fall
Case 137 (Fr)
Dir. Dominik Moll
Christy (Ire-UK)
Dir. Brendan Canty
Crushed (UK)*
Dir. Simon Rumley
Cutting Through Rocks (Iran-Ger-US-Neth-Qat-Chile-Can)
Dirs. Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni
Deaf (Sp)
Dir. Eva Libertad
Dragonfly (UK)
Dir. Paul Andrew Williams
Fires Of The Moon (UK)*
Dir. Christopher Forster
The Golden Spurtle (UK-Australia)
Dir. Constantine Costi
Grow (UK)*
Dir. John McPhail
Growing Down (Hun)
Dir. Bálint Dániel Sós
Hysteria (Ger)
Dir. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
Islands (Ger)
Dir. Jan-Ole Gerster
Little Trouble Girls (Cro)
Dir. Urška Djukic
The Memory Blocks (UK)*
Dir. Andrew Kötting
Misper (UK)*
Dir. Harry Sherriff
Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk (Fr-Palestine-Iran)
Dir. Sepideh Farsi
Sanatorium (Ire-Ukr-Fr)
Dir. Gar O’Rourke
Surviving Earth (UK)
Dir. Thea Gajić
Walk With Me (US)
Dir. Heidi Levitt
Young Mothers (Belg-Fr)
Dirs. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Zodiac Killer Project (UK-US)
Dir. Charlie Shackleton
Lynda Myles Celebrates
After This Death (US)
Dir. Lucio Castro
Midnight Madness
Bulk (UK)* – opening film
Dir. Ben Wheatley
The Toxic Avenger (US) – closing film
Dir. Macon Blair
Dead Lover (Can)
Dir. Grace Glowicki
I Live Here Now (US)
Dir. Julie Pacino
Odyssey (UK)
Dir. Gerard Johnson
Redux Redux (US)
Dirs. Matthew McManus, Kevin McManus
Retrospectives
Red Road (UK)
Dir. Andrea Arnold
The Cranes Are Flying (Soviet Union)
Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Go (US)
Dir. Doug Liman
The Man In The White Suit (UK)
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick
Restless Natives (UK)
Dir. Michael Hoff man
Silent Scream (UK)
Dir. David Hayman