Saoirse Ronan Drama ‘The Outrun’ To Open Edinburgh Film Festival

The rebranded Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will open its forthcoming 77th edition with Nora Fingscheidt’s adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan.

The film had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Studiocanal in the UK and Ireland on September 27.

The pic stars Ronan as a young woman who finds herself washed up back home on the Scottish islands of Orkney as she battles to rebuild her life after a decade of addiction. Ronan, who also co-produced the film, will join filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt (System Crasher) in attendance at this year’s EIFF, alongside writer Amy Liptrot and the film’s producers Sarah Brocklehurst and Dominic Norris.

The Outrun was developed and produced by Sarah Brocklehurst of Brock Media, Dominic Norris of Arcade Pictures, Ronan, and Jack Lowden, with the support of BBC Film and Screen Scotland. Executive producers are Protagonist Pictures, BBC Film, Screen Scotland, and MBK Productions.

EIFF today also revealed the name of its short film competition. The comp will be known as The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence. Thelma Schoonmaker is best known for her work as Martin Scorsese’s longtime editor. Their collaborations include Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street, and, most recently, Killers of the Flower Moon. Schoonmaker will be in attendance at this year’s festival. The award comes with a cash prize of £15,000.

The short film competition runs alongside four additional shorts programs, 10 world-premiere feature films competing for The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, and programming strands including Out of Competition – which includes international premieres, UK premieres, and additional world premieres, a Midnight Madness strand showcasing the best in genre cinema from around the world and a retrospective strand honoring film history.

“The Outrun is a truly special film. Powered by an electric and fearless central performance by Saoirse Ronan, this is lyrical, momentous cinema of real rigor and intelligence, and exactly the kind of bold work we want to champion with our relaunched festival,” said EIFF Director Paul Ridd.

“I have been a fan of Nora Fingscheidt’s uncompromising, emotional filmmaking ever since her debut System Crasher and I can think of no more fitting combination of announcements than this wonderful film as our opening with the confirmation of the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker’s gracious support for our Shorts Prize. We are honored to be working with such phenomenal women of cinema.”