Introduction
Back in March, the situation around the Covid-19 global pandemic dictated that we postpone the 2020 edition of EIFF.
Since then we have been able to deliver elements of EIFF in 2020, in the form of EdFilmFest at Home, our online festival delivered in partnership with Curzon Home Cinema, the Edinburgh Drive In Movies delivered in partnership with Unique Events, and Talent Lab Connects, one of our talent development programmes.
However, in August we agonisingly had to concede, all things considered, that it would not be possible to deliver a physical festival in 2020 at all.
At the time of postponement, we were some distance from confirming a full programme, though a good number of films had already confirmed their acceptance of our invitation. Those are listed below. We also completed the process of watching and selecting from the films submitted to us, and those titles, which were all due to receive our invitation in the normal course of events, are also listed below.
Together, they make up a tantalising snapshot of what might have been…
Rod White
Programme Director EIFF 2020
Feature Fiction
| 1986 | Lothar Herzog | 2019 | Germany |
| About Us | Stefan Schwartz | 2020 | USA, UK, Italy |
| Beasts Clawing at Straws | Kim Yong-hoon | 2020 | South Korea |
| Black Bear | Lawrence Michael Levine | 2019 | USA |
| Cat in the Wall | Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova | 2019 | UK, Bulgaria, France |
| Lina from Lima | María Paz González | 2019 | Chile, Peru, Argentina |
| Dog's Death, A | Matías Ganz | 2019 | Argentina |
| Just Like That | Kislay Kislay | 2019 | India |
| Los Lobos | Samuel Kishi | 2019 | Mexico |
| Marionette | Elbert van Strien | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Mavzer | Fatih Ozcan | 2019 | Turkey |
| My Mexican Bretzel | Nuria Giménez | 2019 | Spain |
| Pencil, The | Natalya Nazarova | 2019 | Russia |
| Trouble with Nature, The | Illum Jacobi | 2020 | Denmark, France |
Short Docs
| At The River | Angelo Madsen Minax | 2020 | United States |
| Carving Space | Annie Dean-Ganek | 2019 | United States |
| Egg Cup Requiem | Prisca Bouchet, Nick Mayow | 2019 | New Zealand |
| Marleni, not Marlen | Carmen Aumedes | 2019 | Spain |
| Material Bodies | Dorothy Allen-Pickard | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Radia | Erica Beebe | 2019 | United Kingdom |
Feature Documentary
| Exemplary Behaviour | Audrius Mickevičius, Nerijus Milerius | 2019 | Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Italy |
| Froth | Ilya Povolotsky | 2019 | Russia, Qatar |
| Seat at The Table, A | David Nash, Simon Mark-Brown | 2019 | New Zealand |
| Speak So I Can See You | Marija Stojnić | 2019 | Serbia, Croatia, Qatar |
| Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road | Brent Wilson | 2019 | United States |
| Coded Bias | Shalini Kantayya | 2020 | United States |
| Lady Time | Elina Talvensaari | 2019 | Finland |
| Leadership, The | Ili Baré | 2020 | Australia |
| My Darling Supermarket | Tali Yankelevich | 2019 | Brazil |
| On A Clear Day You Can See The Revolution From Here | Emma Charles, Ben Evans James | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Once You Know | Emmanuel Cappellin, Anne-Marie Sangla | 2020 | France |
| Petit Samedi | Paloma Sermon-Daï | 2020 | Belgium |
| Stray | Elizabeth Lo | 2019 | Hong Kong |
Animation Shorts
| Cat Called Jam, A | Lorraine Lordan | 2019 | Ireland |
| Asmahan the Diva | Chloé Mazlo | 2019 | France |
| Average Happiness | Maja Gehrig | 2019 | France |
| Bach-Hông | Elsa Duhamel | 2019 | France |
| Dutchgaria | Capucine Muller | 2019 | Belgium |
| Fantasmia | Luise Fiedler | 2019 | Germany |
| Flood, The | Sofya Nabok | 2019 | Poland |
| Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad | Camrus Johnson, Pedro Piccinini | 2019 | United States |
| Great Malaise, The | Catherine Lepage | 2019 | Canada |
| Helfer | Anna Szöllősi | 2019 | Hungary |
| Hot Flash | Thea Hollatz | 2019 | Canada |
| Icebound | Drew Christie | 2019 | United States |
| Inès | Élodie Dermange | 2019 | France |
| Just a Small | Na Kyung Kim | 2019 | Republic of Korea |
| Kapaemahu | Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson | 2019 | United States |
| Lah gah (Letting go) | Cécile Brun | 2019 | Switzerland |
| Machini | Frank Mukunday, Trésor Tshibangu Tshamala | 2019 | Belgium |
| Ties | Dina Velikovskaya | 2019 | Russian Federation |
| Wade | Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, Kalp Sanghvi | 2019 | India |
McLaren Award
| 2.3 x 2.6 x 3.2 | Jiaqi Wang | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Betty | Will Anderson | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Home | Anita Bruvere | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Last Train, The | Ross Hogg | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Nod. Wink. Horse. | Ollie Magee | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Wood Child and Hidden Forest Mother | Stephen Irwin | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Alan, the Infinite | Mikey Please, Dan Ojari | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Chado | Dominica Harrison | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Cwch Deilen | Efa Blosse Mason | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Di-cake | Lam Lo | 2019 | Macao |
| In Her Boots | Kathrin Steinbacher | 2019 | Austria |
| Nigel | Natasza Cetner | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| No Body | Haemin Ko | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| O Black Hole | Renewe Zhan | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Pitch Black Panacea | Tom Hardiman | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Red Rover | Astrid Goldsmith | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| What Will You Do Now, John? | Pooja Pottenkulam | 2019 | United Kingdom |
Black Box Shorts
| Aberración Cromática (fiebre) | Andrés Baron | 2019 | Colombia, France |
| Field Resistance | Emily Drummer | 2019 | United States |
| Further Radical | Stefano Canapa | 2020 | France |
| How a Sprig of Fir Would Replace a Feather | Anna Kipervaser | 2019 | United States |
| Kopierwerk | Stefanie Weberhofer | 2019 | Austria |
| STRIPES | Ann Oren | 2019 | Germany |
| THORAX | Siegfried A. Fruhauf | 2019 | Austria |
| DOME | Linda Scobie | 2020 | United States |
| Eviction, Demolition | Karissa Hahn | 2019 | United States |
| House Pieces | Christine Lucy Latimer | 2019 | Canada |
| I speak to my demons | Tommaso Donati | 2019 | France |
| Jumping Moments | Justin Jinsoo Kim | 2020 | United States |
| Lost Child Reel | Rhys Morgan | 2019 | United States |
| Mary B's Garden | Baba Hillman | 2020 | France |
| mia camera, La | Friedl vom Groller | 2019 | Austria |
| Month of Single Frames, A | Lynne Sachs | 2019 | United States |
| No Garden Beyond | Anna Kipervaser, Rhys Morgan | 2019 | Bermuda |
| noonwraith blues | Kamila Kuc | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Notte Salva, La | Giuseppe Boccassini | 2019 | Germany, Italy |
| Origami Tutorial | Heehyun Choi | 2019 | United States |
| proposal to project in Scope, A | Viktoria Schmid | 2020 | Austria, Lithuania |
| Quid Pro Quo | Anastasia Melia Eleftheriou | 2020 | France |
| Redbird and other birds | Julieta Maria | 2019 | Canada |
| Riveted, Structures, Lands | Brenda Grell | 2019 | United States |
| Rust | Friedl vom Gröller | 2019 | Austria |
| SEA 404 | Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu & Michael Pisaro | 2019 | United States |
| Slow Volumes | Mike Gibisser | 2019 | United States |
| So Many Ideas Impossible To Do All | Mark Street, Barbara Hammer | 2019 | United States |
| Test Room | Pedro Antunes | 2019 | Portugal |
| Transcript | Erica Sheu | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Tri-Alogue #4 | Caryn Cline, Linda Fenstermaker, Reed O'Beirne | 2020 | United States |
| Under Sky, Over Earth | David Chatton Barker | 2019 | United Kingdom |
SFTN Shorts
| A Glimpse | Zinnie Harris | 2020 | UK |
| Bound | Joe Carter | 2020 | UK |
| Consumed | Karen Lamond, Simone Pereira Hind | 2020 | UK |
| The Mad Shagger | Ciaran Lyons | 2020 | UK |
| Scuzz | Alia Ghafar | 2020 | UK |
| Trifle | Michael Callaghan, Rachelle Atalla | 2020 | UK |
| Unexpected Item | Iain McCall | 2020 | UK |
Shorts Fiction
| Ani | Josephine Stewart Te Whiu | 2019 | New Zealand |
| Daniel | Claire van Beek | 2019 | New Zealand |
| Dungarees | Abel Rubinstein | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Hinekura | Becs Arahanga | 2019 | New Zealand |
| Krystal | Briar Grace-Smith | 2018 | New Zealand |
| Little Chief | Erica Tremblay | 2019 | USA |
| Our Sister | Rosie Westhoff | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Pompeii | Harry Lighton, Marco Alessi, Matthew Jacobs Morgan | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Sol del llano | Manuela Irene | 2019 | Mexico, Colombia |
| Topping Out | Kerry Fox | 2020 | New Zealand, United Kingdom |
| 10 Minutes For A Pound | Jadey Duffield, Linda Louise Duan | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Being My Mom | Jasmine Trinca | 2020 | Italy |
| Big Trouble in Little America | Qiyue Sun | 2019 | United States |
| Black Goat | Yi Tang | 2019 | Hong Kong |
| Bonde | Asaph Luccas | 2019 | Brazil |
| Bruut | Tom De liège | 2019 | Belgium |
| Chicken | Alana Hicks | 2019 | Australia |
| End-O | Alice Seabright | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Filipiñana | Rafael Mendoza | 2020 | United Kingdom |
| Friends Like That | Francesca de Fusco | 2019 | United States |
| Grizzlies | Alex Heller | 2019 | United States |
| In Deutschland | Christoph Rath | 2019 | Germany |
| KINGDOM | Bettina Oberli | 2019 | Switzerland |
| Light on a Path, Follow | Elliot Montague | 2019 | United States |
| Monte Bravo | Noelia María Muíño González | 2020 | Spain |
| Sona | Maryam Mahdiyeh | 2020 | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| Square One | Emily Jo Sargent | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Strong Is Better Than Angry | Wendy Griffin; Hope Dickson Leach | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Sudden Light | Sophie Littman | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| T | Keisha Rae Witherspoon | 2019 | United States |
| Trashy Booty | Iris Devins | 2019 | United States |
| Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth, The | Caroline Smith | 2019 | United Kingdom |
Feature Docs
| Exemplary Behaviour | Audrius Mickevičius, Nerijus Milerius | 2019 | Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Italy |
| Froth | Ilya Povolotsky | 2019 | Russia, Qatar |
| Seat at The Table, A | David Nash, Simon Mark-Brown | 2019 | New Zealand |
| Speak So I Can See You | Marija Stojnić | 2019 | Serbia, Croatia, Qatar |
| Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road | Brent Wilson | 2019 | United States |
| Coded Bias | Shalini Kantayya | 2020 | United States |
| Lady Time | Elina Talvensaari | 2019 | Finland |
| Leadership, The | Ili Baré | 2020 | Australia |
| My Darling Supermarket | Tali Yankelevich | 2019 | Brazil |
| On A Clear Day You Can See The Revolution From Here | Emma Charles, Ben Evans James | 2019 | United Kingdom |
| Once You Know | Emmanuel Cappellin, Anne-Marie Sangla | 2020 | France |
| Petit Samedi | Paloma Sermon-Daï | 2020 | Belgium |
| Stray | Elizabeth Lo | 2019 | Hong Kong |