Edinburgh Film Festival Hires ‘Trainspotting’ Producer Andrew Macdonald To Create And Chair New Governing Board

Zac Ntim
·2 min read
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Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald has been appointed as the new Chair of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).

As part of the role, Macdonald will lead the formation of a new organization that will deliver EIFF from 2024. Macdonald will now recruit a board and executive team to lead the Festival’s development from September 2023.

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Like many Scottish film professionals, Macdonald is an EIFF alum. He worked at the festival in 1992, during which he made a video diary about raising cash to produce his first feature film, Shallow Grave. The film was finally made in 1993 and had its world premiere at EIFF in 1994.

Written by John Hodge and directed by Danny Boyle, the film was a box office success and won the BAFTA for Best British Film. Macdonald went on to produce several films with Boyle, including Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, and T2 Trainspotting. Since 1997 he’s headed DNA Films, producing and financing films including Beautiful Creatures, The Last King of Scotland, Notes on a Scandal, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, Far From the Madding Crowd, Sunshine on Leith, Ex Machina, Annihilation and Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In. In recent years, he’s also branched into TV. Productions include Devs for FX, Shogun for FX, and an adaptation of Rumer Godden’s Black Narcissus for the BBC and FX Productions. Macdonald’s most recent films include Men and Civil War, both written and directed by Alex Garland for A24.

In addition to producing and running DNA for 25 years, Macdonald is in his fourth year as a governor of the National Film and Television School and is a Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Today’s announcement comes ahead of this year’s special edition Edinburgh International Film Festival, hosted as part of the Edinburgh International Festival under a one-year agreement between Edinburgh International Festival and Screen Scotland.

This year Edinburgh runs Aug 18-23. Five feature films will be presented as World Premieres, including the opening film Silent Roar. The festival closes with British Iranian filmmaker Babak Jalali’s well-received Sundance pic Fremont. This year’s event is the first organized by the new Programme Director, Kate Taylor. Taylor took over the post from Kristy Matheson, who is now heading the BFI’s LFF.

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