For the UK Premiere of beautifully performed psychological thriller Islands, star Sam Riley (Maleficent, On The Road) and will join director Jan Ole Gerster (Oh Boy!, A Friend Of Mine), Jack Farthing (Poldark, Spencer) and Stacy Martin (The Brutalist).
Attending the Festival for the UK premiere of acclaimed film Dragonfly are director Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton, Bull), Andrea Riseborough (Oblivion, Birdman), Brenda Blethyn (Saving Grace, Pride & Prejudice) and Jason Watkins (The Last Honour of Christopher Jefferies, The Catch).
For the World Premiere of taut psychological crime thriller All The Devils Are Here director Barnaby Roper (The Interview, Scratch’n’Sniff) will attend the Festival with stars Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes, Ray Donovan), Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim, Watcher) and Tienne Simon (Grime Kids, C. B. Strike).
In town for the World Premiere of the exuberant and thoroughly entertaining family film Grow, director John McPhail (Anna and The Apocalypse, Dear David) will be joined by stars Golda Rosheuvel (Bridgerton, Eye For An Eye), Jane Horrocks (Little Voice, Cabaret), Dominic McLaughlin (HBO’s Harry Potter series), Priya Rose (Young Becky, The Lazarus Project) and Jeremy Swift (Ted Lasso, Snow White).
The UK Premiere of The Golden Spurtle will see director Constantine Costi (Karakorum, Abduction) in attendance alongside participants from the competitive porridge making documentary including Charlie Miller, the former self-titled Chieftain of the Golden Spurtle.
Attending the Festival are the Competition filmmakers who make up this year’s main competition, The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence supported by The Sean Connery Foundation. They are:
Director Harry Lagoussis (Stratos), Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness, Pusher) and Ella Rumpf (Raw, Tiger Girl) for Novak;
Director Jaclyn Bethany (Indigo Valley, The Delta Girl), writer Alex Sarregeorgiou and star Francois Arnaud (The Borgias, I Killed My Mother) for In Transit;
Campbell X (Stud Life, Des!re) for Low Rider;
Filmmakers Per Bifrost (Autonomous, Giants and the Morning After) & Alexander Rynéus (The Glitter Factory, Giants and the Morning After) for Once You Shall Be One of Those Who Lived Here Long Ago;
Director Mas Bouzidi (Flâneur, Four Grooves) for Concessions;
Filmmakers Ondine Viñao (Holy Fools, Bottom of a Bottle), Ivy Freeman-Attwood (Bob Marley: One Love, On Point) and Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Fantastic Four) for Two Neighbors;
Director Jesse Noah Klein (Shadowboxing, We’re Still Together) for Best Boy;
Abdolreza Kahani (A Shrine, which screened in Competition at EIFF 2024, Delighted, Hich), Nima Sadrzadeh Jolgeh (A Shrine) and Gola (Head Over Heels, Tehran 1998) for Mortician;
Filmmaker Elliott Tuttle (The Steps, Lina’s Song), Reed Birney (The Menu, House of Cards) and Kieron Moore (Code of Silence, Vampire Academy) for Blue Film;
Director Helen Walsh (The Violators, The Gathering), Barry Ward (Jimmy’s Hall, Blood Cells), Lorne Macfadyen (Operation Mincemeat, The Little Stranger) and Liz White (Life on Mars, The Woman in Black) for On the Sea.
Across the wider programme, director Nadia Fall attends Brides alongside performers Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar; Director Brendan Canty will attend for his Cork set film Christy; Director Gerard Johnson and star Polly Maberly attend for their darkly hilarious new thriller Odyssey; Director Urska Djukic attends for coming-of-age film Little Trouble Girls; Filmmaker Lucio Castro for the erotic thriller After this Death and Charlie Shackleton for his meta documentary Zodiac Killer Project.
Previously announced guests include Eva Victor (Boys Go To Jupiter, As Of Yet) for the Festival’s opening night film Sorry, Baby. Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace, Free Fire), Noah Taylor (Shine, Vanilla Sky), Alexandra Maria Lara (Rush, Downfall) will attend for the World Premiere of Ben’s Midnight Madness opening night film Bulk.
Paul Sng (Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, Tish) and Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting, Filth) attending for the World Premiere of Paul’s immersive documentary film Reality Is Not Enough, which will close the Festival on 20 August 2025.
Filmmakers from The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence will also attend the Festival.
EIFF’s In Conversation strand also features a range of attending major filmmaking talent who will discuss their creative careers to date including legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker, celebrated filmmaking team Ken Loach, Paul Laverty & Rebecca O’Brien (The Wind That Shakes The Barley; I, Daniel Blake) Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void, One to One: John & Yoko) speaking with his brother, producer Andrew Macdonald (Trainspotting, Civil War, 28 Years Later), acclaimed filmmakers Nia DaCosta (Candyman, The Marvels) and Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey, Cow, Bird) and producer Jeremy Thomas (The Hit, Bad Timing, Naked Lunch).
EIFF 2025 is supported by Screen Scotland.
