10 things to see at the Edin­burgh Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val 2017

With its sta­tus as the world’s old­est con­tin­u­al­ly run­ning film fes­ti­val, the EIFF has become syn­ony­mous with cut­ting-edge cul­ture and pow­er­ful film­mak­ing. This year’s fes­ti­val stays true to their ethos, with a pro­gramme that cov­ers the entire spec­trum of world cin­e­ma. Here are 10 films and events from this year’s bumper pro­gramme that are not to be missed.

An unau­tho­rised biog­ra­phy of Steven Patrick Mor­ris­sey, one of music’s most incen­di­ary fig­ures, is always going to turn heads. Eng­land is Mine seeks to do just that, offer­ing up an inti­mate por­tray­al of the Smiths front­man that explores his ambi­tions, dis­ap­point­ments, and cre­ative com­ing-of-age as a teenag­er in Man­ches­ter. A fig­ure of unyield­ing media atten­tion, could Mor­ris­sey get the biopic he’s always deserved care of direc­tor Mark Gill? Get tick­ets

Soaked in sea­side nos­tal­gia, Bryn Hig­gins’ Access All Areas takes the youth­ful free spir­it cours­ing through the veins of the UK’s fes­ti­val scene and spins it into a vibrant road trip. Fea­tur­ing Ella Pur­nell of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Pecu­liar Chil­dren, and Jor­dan Stephens – one half of hip-hop duo Riz­zle Kicks – Access All Areas takes music, lib­er­a­tion and teenage anguish on the road to the Isle of Man’s Besti­val, brim­ming with colour and wist­ful ado­les­cence. Get tick­ets

Part of the festival’s ​‘Amer­i­can Dreams’ strand, Dash Shaw’s psy­che­del­ic ani­ma­tion promis­es to be a weird and won­der­ful trip through high school. Focus­ing on a high school news­pa­per team attempt­ing to escape their school, which is slow­ly sink­ing into the shark-infest­ed Pacif­ic Ocean, it’s safe to say that My Entire High School Sink­ing Into the Sea pays no cre­dence to con­ven­tion­al nar­ra­tive. Boast­ing the vocal tal­ent of Jason Schwartz­man and Lena Dun­ham, Shaw’s film promis­es to be as wit­ty and hilar­i­ous as it is utter­ly bizarre. Get tick­ets

Michael Haneke’s dark fable The White Rib­bon finds kin­ship in Fer­enc Török’s 1945, which explores the inhab­i­tants of a rur­al, Sovi­et-occu­pied Hun­gar­i­an vil­lage. As the vil­lage pre­pares for a wed­ding, a time of cel­e­bra­tion and togeth­er­ness, two Ortho­dox Jews arrive at the local rail­way sta­tion, omi­nous­ly car­ry­ing two large trunks. Their arrival sig­nals pan­ic in the town, and Törok’s mono­chro­mat­ic explo­ration of vil­lage life shows how quick­ly nor­mal exis­tence can descend into chaos. Get tick­ets

An endur­ing fig­ure of old-school movie star­dom, Cary Grant is the quin­tes­sen­tial lead­ing man for fans of Gold­en-era Hol­ly­wood. Mark Kidel’s new doc­u­men­tary traces Grant’s mete­oric rise to fame, from his hum­ble begin­nings in Bris­tol where he began life as Archibald Leach, to his move across the pond and the suc­cess he found there. Com­pris­ing archival footage and rare, unseen home video, Kidel’s film explores Grant’s drug use, his strug­gle with fame and his canon­i­sa­tion as a Hol­ly­wood icon. Get tick­ets

Receiv­ing its world pre­mière as part of the ​‘Night Moves’ strand, The Dark Mile is a gloomy, folk­loric explo­ration of raw High­land hor­ror. Louise and Clare book a sail­ing trip to the High­lands with hopes of recov­er­ing from a recent per­son­al tragedy, but soon find them­selves being stalked by a black indus­tri­al barge and the strangers on board. Set against the stun­ning, stark vis­tas of the Scot­tish high­lands, The Dark Mile looks to take the torch of rit­u­al­is­tic hor­ror away from the island of Sum­merisle and car­ry it deep into the bleak moun­tains of north­ern Scot­land. Get tick­ets

One of the unsung mas­ter­pieces of New Zealand cin­e­ma, Geof­frey Murphy’s 1985 apoc­a­lyp­tic tale of the last remain­ing peo­ple on Earth screens as part of the festival’s ​‘Brave New World’ seg­ment. Awak­ing to find an unnamed cos­mic dis­as­ter has erased all human life on Earth, Zac Hob­son (Bruno Lawrence) strug­gles to cope with his new­found soli­tude and con­tem­plates sui­cide. A chance meet­ing with two oth­er sur­vivors, how­ev­er, sig­nals the start of their jour­ney to dis­cov­er­ing just what hap­pened, and how they were inex­plic­a­bly spared. Get tick­ets

As a tongue-in-cheek trib­ute to the UK’s impend­ing depar­ture from the Euro­pean Union, the fes­ti­val is putting togeth­er a ret­ro­spec­tive of land­mark British ani­mat­ed films, with Bob Godfrey’s work serv­ing as the main event. God­frey was the first British ani­ma­tor to win an Acad­e­my Award, receiv­ing the hon­our for Great in 1975. Iron­i­cal­ly, this was the same year that the British peo­ple also par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Com­mon Mar­ket ref­er­en­dum with­in the EU. Brex­it may mean Brex­it, but cin­e­mas means a great many things, and this ret­ro­spec­tive looks to rekin­dle the nations’s love affair with ani­ma­tion. Get tick­ets

One of the festival’s biggest attrac­tions for cinephiles is its ​‘Black Box’ seg­ment, which show­cas­es short and fea­ture-length exper­i­men­tal films. George Clark’s A Dis­tance Echo is a stun­ning med­i­ta­tion on his­to­ry and exis­tence through land­scape, and how our envi­ron­ment defines who we are. Shot on gor­geous 35mm film, Clark explores local and nation­al pol­i­tics against the back­drop of var­i­ous Cal­i­forn­ian deserts, all accom­pa­nied by Tom Challenger’s haunt­ing score. Get tick­ets

The late, very great Jonathan Demme’s Stop Mak­ing Sense fea­tures as part of a new ret­ro­spec­tive that will see a renowned con­cert film screen annu­al­ly at the fes­ti­val. This ground-break­ing doc­u­men­tary, which shows Talk­ing Heads at the peak of their pow­ers, has influ­enced count­less film­mak­ers and artists since its release in 1984. A fit­ting trib­ute to Demme’s recent pass­ing, and the per­fect film to launch the festival’s live con­cert film ini­tia­tive. Get tick­ets

The Edin­burgh Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val runs 21 June to 2 July. For more info and to book tick­ets vis­it edfilm​fest​.org​.uk