Highlights of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s comeback line-up

It has been more than two years since the Edinburgh International Film Festival last rolled out its red carpet.

The Festival Theatre will host a gala premiere of Everybody's Talking About Jamie - the new big-screen adaptation of the hit stage musical, while an outdoor celebration event will be held in St Andrew Square Garden.

But the countdown is on for the city’s annual cinematic celebration to return after its programme was unveiled. Organisers of the festival, moved back from June this year to its traditional slot in August, have laid on socially distanced screenings indoors and outdoors.

Here’s a few highlights of what’s in store.

Film Fest on the Forth, 31 July & 1 August: Delayed from last year, a new communal cinema experiene will get the festivities underway this weekend at Port Edgar Marina at South Queensferry with a series of nautical and aquatic-themed screenings. Jaws, Whale Rider, Whisky Galore!, The Water Horse and Moana and Titanic are among the big-screen treats lined-up for the free event, tickets for which have already been snapped up.

Film Fest in the City, 19-25 August: St Andrew Square Garden will host a week of free screenings, including Grease, Casablanca, Star Wars and Superman for the first time. Four films a day will be screened, however tickets must be booked in advance due to crowd capacity and distancing restrictions.

Pig, 18 August: The festival will open with the European premiere of Nicolas Cage’s acclaimed new movie. The Oscar winner plays a truffle hunter living alone in the Oregon wilderness who returns home after his foraging pet pig is kidnapped.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, 20 August: The adaptation of the hit West End musical about a teenager dreams of becoming a drag queen will launch with a celebration event in St Andrew Square and a big Festival Theatre gala. Newcomer Max Harwood stars alongside Richard E Grant and Sharon Horgan in the film, which revives the songs from the stage show.

Annette, 21 August: Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star in the new musical create by Ron Mael and Russell Mael, who are better known as 1970s American pop-rock duo Sparks. The film explores how the lifestyles of a comedian and his soprano wife are transformed by the arrival of their daughter.

Hermione Corfield will star in new war-time island drama The Road Dance, which was filmed in the Outer Hebrides last year.

Prince of Muck, 22 August: The world premiere of a portrait of the Hebridean laird Lawrence MacEwen, whose family has owned the Isle of Muck since 1896, will explore his efforts to preserve the fragile way of life there, and his struggle to accept that he no longer controls his own life, nor the island he loves, as much as he used to.

The Gig Is Up, 24 August: The hidden human costs of the global gig economy are explored in the new documentary. Workers for Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo feature in the film which looks at the working conditions, poor pay and risk of dismissal behind the technology revolution.

The Road Dance, 24 August: Hermione Corfield and Morven Christie star in the island drama adapted by Richie Adams from STV broadcaster John Mackay’s novel. Filmed on the Isle of Lewis last year, the war-time story focuses on a young woman whose life is suddenly turned upside down.

Here Today, 25 August: Hollywood legend Billy Crystal’s new film will bring the festival to a close with the UK premiere of his new comedy-drama. He stars opposite Tiffany Haddish in a New York-set story about a comedy writer and a busker who forge an unlikely friendship.