UKFC lifts Edinburgh festival budget

Event receives 50% more

By ADAM DAWTREY

EDINBURGH — The Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival has received a 50% increase in its core budget, with the U.K. Film Council awarding the event an extra £1.88 million ($3.8 million) over the next three years.

The money will be used to support Edinburgh's growth strategy in its new date at the end of June. Previously the fest took place in August as part of the Scottish capital's larger arts festival.

The EIFF is planning to reposition itself as an event devoted to the discovery of new talent, and a major annual gathering for the U.K. film community.

UKFC chief exec John Woodward commented, "Edinburgh's ambition is a great one — to make their film festival the world's leading festival of discovery. This £1.88 million injection of lottery cash over the next three years will put them well on the way to achieving it."

The fest's managing director Ginnie Atkinson said, "The funding is attached to specific activities planned to make EIFF even more effective as a meeting place in the broadest sense of the word; a place where culture, ideas and business can be progressed — in the unique setting of one of the world's most amazing cities."

The new coin from UKFC will make up roughly a third of EIFF's 2008 cash budget, which now stands at $3.62 million. Last year's budget was just under $2.01 million, but that had already been increased to $2.4 million for 2008 by a bigger grant from Scottish Screen.

This year's EIFF runs June 18-29.