EIFF welcomes legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker for an in-depth and fascinating discussion of her late husband Michael Powell’s life and filmmaking. 

Beginning his career directing low budget films in the 1930s prior to his acclaimed 1937 film The Edge of the World (also screening in a restoration at EIFF 2025), Michael Powell is perhaps best known for his creative partnership with Emeric Pressburger. That partnership produced some of the most brilliant British films of the 20th century, including The Life of Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948). 

Public outrage at Powell’s solo directorial effort, the disturbing horror masterpiece Peeping Tom (1960) has since rightfully turned to praise and Powell is now considered one of the most important British filmmakers of the 20th century. This is thanks in no small part to the efforts of Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker since the 1980s, with their championing of his films and efforts to restore them.