Preparing for the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2008

I know Daniel may have already given a brief insight into the films he is going to be catching at this year’s festival of viewing delight, but I thought I’d give a bit more depth into the process of why I picked particular films over others.

My process for picking films from this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival is as follows:

– Forget any old films. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like old films, and I also agree that old films should be shown alongside new films more often. This isn’t to say old films aren’t good, quite the contrary, they will be good, at least in someone’s view, and they can always be discovered later. It’s the new films that I am here for, and the new journeys I can take with these films that I am interested in. I stick by this one quite religiously (even if I was toying with going to see ‘Jason and the Argonauts’).

– Forget the workshops, talks, and shorts. I feel this one too may seem harsh to some, as the shorts are usually by directors whose films you will see featured in years to come. There really is no offence intended, as I do like shorts, and if I have the spare time I will check them out in the basement viewing library. But as I previously stated, it’s the films I’m interested in, and I will watch as many films as is humanly possible!

– Read every synopsis of every other film and rank them. Usually this will take about a week to do, as I like to take the time to read everything over once or twice. Then I’ll rank them into the following categories: Must See, Probably, Maybe, No. Then, I’ll score out everything with a no attached. Those films are not going to be seen by me, at least not here. I’ll then highlight the Must sees and tag the rest.

– Make a huge spreadsheet including every time of every film left over. Once that is done I can then start getting rid of the 2nd and 3rd showings of films, and try to make sure I see everything that is in the top three categories. This year has worked extraordinarily well for me, as I’ve only needed to cut 2 films from all of the ones I’ve wanted to see, which leaves me very exited!

– Go! This one is the most important.

With that in mind, here is a rundown of all the films I’m hoping to catch:

Warsaw Dark, A Complete History Of My Sexual Favours, Blood Car, Dummy, Strange Girls, The King Of Ping Pong, Just Another Love Song, Time Crimes, Spike, Fear(s) Of The Dark, The Wackness, Stone Of Destiny, Tiramisu, Gloss: The Directors Cut, The Third Pint, Trail Of The Screaming Forehead, sleep furiously, Donkey Punch, Mechanical Love, Wall-E, Faintheart, The New Ten Commandments, Mermaid, Vogelfrei, Enlightened Blood, Sleep Dealer, A Film With Me In It, Bigga’ Than Ben: A Russians Guide To Ripping Of London, Encounters at the End of the World, Dreams With Sharp Teeth, Love And Other Crimes, Milky Way Liberation Front, Goodnight Irene, The Fall, Good Dick, The Surprise Movie, Cadaver, Let The Right One In, Shiver, Bananaz, Man On Wire and Wellness.

Phew! Looks like a good week! More Soon!