The Edinburgh Film Guild (EFG) is a

film society A film society is a membership-based Club (organization), club where people can watch Public and private screening, screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream Movie theater, cinemas. In Spain, Ireland and Italy, they are kn ...

based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Founded in 1929, it is notable as the oldest continuously running film society in the world. Though pre-dated by the original (London) Film Society, founded five years earlier, it has outlasted it, with the Film Society having ceased operation in 1939. The EFG is also of note for having established the

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...

in 1947. According to Scottish film theorist and documentarian

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty's '' ...

the EFG was of particular importance for promoting a wide view of cinema. Writing in 1951 he commented: "The old London Film Society was the first to break from somewhat exclusive attention to the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

and take the longer and harder way of the Russians and more purposive users of the cinema. But it was the Edinburgh Film Guild which completed the movement - as the London Film Society did not - and saw the infinite variety of a Film Society's obligations to all categories of the medium". From 1980 until 2022, the EFG was based in the Filmhouse Cinema in Lothian Road, Edinburgh, where it has its clubrooms, offices and cinema. Since the Filmhouse entered administration the Guild has continued to offer screenings and its educational programme. Run by volunteers on a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

basis, the EFG screens films at several venues including the

French Institute for Scotland The French Institute () in Edinburgh is a cultural centre promoting French language and French culture in Edinburgh and in Scotland and part of the wider Institut Français network around the world. It operates alongside the Institut frança ...

. The programme is organised on the basis of mini-seasons linked by some common element, of director,

performer The performing arts are The arts, arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art ob ...

, country,

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

or theme.

References

External links

A history of the Edinburgh Film Guild by critic

Philip French Philip Neville French (28 August 1933 – 27 October 2015) was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio producer, and later a film critic. H ...

, emphasising its distinctive contributions to Scottish and UK film culture

Newspaper obituary for Forsyth Hardy, a co-founder of the Edinburgh Film Guild and the Edinburgh International Film Festival {{DEFAULTSORT:Edinburgh Film Guild Film societies in the United Kingdom Film organisations in Scotland Arts organizations established in 1929 1929 establishments in Scotland