{"id":336501,"date":"2025-08-11T19:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336501\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:32:14","slug":"brian-cox-edinburgh-festival-not-big-enough-for-my-new-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336501\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Cox: Edinburgh festival not big enough for my new film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n But when the Scottish Government<\/a>-funded film gets its world premiere next month, the red carpet will be rolled out\u00a03300 miles away from Scotland – at the Toronto International Film Festival.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Cox – who has been in the city this month performing in an Edinburgh International Festival play – has suggested Scotland\u2019s longest-running celebration of cinema, which is the oldest continually-running event of its kind in the world, is no longer in the top tier of film festivals.\n<\/p>\n

\n The actor said the EIFF\u00a0still had to get \u201cget its s**t together\u201d following the financial collapse of the event nearly three years ago.\n<\/p>\n

\n Actor Brian Cox has been in Edinburgh this month to perform with the National Theatre of Scotland.\u00a0(Image: Oxford Union)\n<\/p>\n

\n He said he would have been keen to have a private screening of the event at the festival, but suggested he would not have been allowed by the film’s UK distributor,\u00a0Lionsgate.\n<\/p>\n

\n Glenrothan is one of four new Scottish Government-supported films which are being screened in Toronto but not in Edinburgh.\n<\/p>\n

\n Sandy Grierson and Brian Cox have been playing Fred Goodwin and Adam Smith on stage in the new National Theatre of Scotland production Make It Happen.\n<\/p>\n

\n Others include James McAvoy<\/a>\u2019s directorial debut California Schemin\u2019, a new heist thriller made by award-winning Scottish director David Mackenzie and Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro\u2019s new version of Frankenstein, which was filmed across Scotland last year.\n<\/p>\n

\n Scottish Government agency Screen Scotland confirmed the four films had received more than \u00a31.7m in total for their development and production.\n<\/p>\n

\n The EIFF dates back to 1947, when it was launched in the same year as the Edinburgh International Festival and the spin-off event that became the Fringe.\n<\/p>\n

\n The future of the EIFF looked bleak weeks after the 2022 festival drew to a close when it emerged that it had been forced to suddenly shut down trading after the company behind the event, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), went into administration.\n<\/p>\n

\n The revamped EIFF has missed out on the world premieres despite launching a prestigious new feature film prize backed by the family of Sir Sean Connery, a former patron of the film festival, being launched last year.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence \u2013 which is open to 10 world premieres selected for the event each year \u2013 comes with a \u00a350,000 cash prize.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cox, who has made regular appearances on the EIFF red carpet in previous years, backed a campaign to revive the Filmhouse cinema, a long-time venue for festival screenings, after it was also forced to close suddenly when the CMI folded.\n<\/p>\n

\n He was at the Filmhouse last week to help launch a new partnership between the UK Government<\/a> and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which he was named an official patron of last year.\n<\/p>\n

\n In Glenrothan, Cumming plays Donald, who returns to the Highlands after 35 years living in Chicago to try to make amends with his estranged older brother Sandy, who is played by Cox.\n<\/p>\n

\n First announced in 2021, Glenrothan was filmed last year in Scotland, at locations including the Stirlingshire villages of Kippen and Gartmore, as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cox has been performing in Dundee and Edinburgh in recent weeks, playing the ghost of 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith in the National Theatre<\/a> of Scotland production, which depicts the rise and fall of former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred Goodwin.\n<\/p>\n

\n However he told The Herald<\/a> there was a \u201cpractical reason\u201d why his new film would be launching in Toronto rather than Edinburgh.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said: \u201cYou can\u2019t sell anything at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Nobody is bothered about that element of it \u2013 how you sell the f***ing product. There is something immensely practical about art \u2013 it\u2019s all about how you sell it.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is the oldest film festival there is, but with the big chaos they had a few years ago it has lost viability. They have got to get their s*** together. At least they have got the Filmhouse back.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt needs to be a festival where you can sell stuff and you invite people to buy it.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe knew that the best place to be doing it (launching Glenrothan) would be at one of the really proper film festivals. Getting it into Toronto was a big plus for the film.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI would have liked to have shown the film in Edinburgh, but once the deal is done that is it.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI would like to have had a private screening in Edinburgh, but one has to be very careful about that because I have got my people at Lionsgate leading on me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n EIFF director Paul Ridd said: \u201cThere were a number of terrific films we considered for EIFF 2025 where the stakeholders ultimately made the decision to premiere elsewhere later in the year. This is all part of the process.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe respect the decisions of filmmakers, producers and key players behind these films and their launch strategies.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is a really exciting time for Scottish filmmaking and we are immensely proud of all the wonderful films from all around the world that are premiering with us this week.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A spokesperson for Screen Scotland said: \u201cScottish filmmakers are internationally renowned for their craft and regularly are selected to play at major international festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival, which are\u00a0often the launchpad\u00a0for international sales.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBrian Cox\u2019s\u00a0Glenrothan, James McAvoy\u2019s\u00a0California Schemin\u00a0and David\u00a0Mackenzie’s\u00a0Fuze\u00a0will all debut at TIFF, as well\u00a0as Guillermo Del Toro\u2019s\u00a0Frankenstein, which shot in Scotland, ahead of its launch on Netflix.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe EIFF\u2019s revitalised offer positions it as a global player celebrating the very best that cinema has to offer in a modern, energised context and very much part of the wider cultural offering taking place in Edinburgh in August.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe world premiere competition strand in particular is attracting a growing industry presence alongside local and international audiences\u00a0looking for a\u00a0sense of discovery, experimentation, and cross-arts collaboration.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n For festival tickets see here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But when the Scottish Government-funded film gets its world premiere next month, the red carpet will be rolled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-336501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115011803093269051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}