Edinburgh Film Festival: it's all action for director Hannah

After frantic preparations watching five movies a day film festival director all set for new June start date.

IT was one of those moments when you feel the thrill of being a teenager again.

It didn't come for Hannah McGill when she walked down the red carpet – camera bulbs flashing stars in her eyes – with Hollywood stars Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell.

Nor when she sat down with them to enjoy their movie Hallam Foe at the gala opening of the 60th Edinburgh International Film Festival.

It came after all that. Standing in the Edinburgh College of Art, with one of her favourite bands, the ultra-cool Franz Ferdinand, on stage, it suddenly hit her.

"It all came into focus for me at the opening night party," she says, shaking her head and smiling widely at the memory.

"I was standing with Tilda and Jamie Bell – and my mum and dad were there – and that was one of those moments where I thought: 'I'm having a party and Franz Ferdinand are playing'. It was just a lovely coming together of everything."

The start of last year's festival was the culmination of months of hard work, negotiation and globe-trotting for the former teenage cinema usherette turned film festival director. She will, of course, be doing it all again a little earlier this year, thanks to her brave decision to transplant the festival from its traditional August slot to June.

With the programme nailed down some time ago, the 31-year-old is shopping for something to wear to this year's opening gala – when she will welcome fashionistas Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley, the stars of opening night film The Edge Of Love.

For her it's an important part of the job, rather than what fires her enthusiasm, as she spends those winter months plotting for next year's movie extravaganza.

"I think people want a little bit of glamour," says Hannah. "It's always nice to see people in real life that you've admired and read about. I think we emphasise people who are creatively interesting rather than just people who are famous faces and often our audiences are as excited to meet a director, cinematographer or a screenwriter as they are to meet an actor."

She has been a regular at international film festivals like Cannes and Sundance for the last seven years but she says red carpet moments like last year's opening night have been rare. On a recent trip, she recalls seeing Madonna and Sharon Stone posing together for the paparazzi, but then she only had time to pause momentarily as she dashed from one screening to the next.

Indeed, in the preparation for this year's programme – and with two months less than usual to make it happen – Hannah has been spending entire days in a darkened cinema, watching up to five films a day. "I think everyone thinks if you go to Cannes you spend the whole time sitting on a beach with a cocktail, which you don't," she says.

"If you are working there it can be pretty hellish. Cannes can be very overwhelming, especially the first time. It's incredibly confusing and aggressive because of all the very pushy people trying to make their names. It's very busy and hot and loud and the schedule is incredibly complicated. But obviously there are moments when you appreciate being abroad among creative, fabulous people and that is very nice."

Hannah is not frightened to give her opinion on an issue or a film, but she says she finds talking about herself tiring.

She will admit, though, that a small part of her is longing for that moment when the last film rolls and the party-goers take their leave. She plans then to finally start "knocking nails into walls" and making the West End flat she moved into shortly after taking up her post two years ago – and shares with her actor boyfriend Al Seed – more homely.

The couple met at university in Glasgow and having recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of their first date, it's a relationship that flourishes despite their busy lifestyles.

"Last year he was doing this really intense Fringe show and I was doing this for the first time and we just didn't see each other," recalls Hannah. "This year, being busy at different times of the year will be great."

Indeed, when the Festival opens on June 18, Hannah will be launching herself into days that begin at 8am and go on until 2am the following morning.

She says it's a time when she'll be running on adrenaline and, if last year taught her anything, it will be to carry a snack in her bag so she can literally snatch a bite to eat as she's running from one screening to the next. The media graduate has come a long way since her first job in the film industry as an usherette at a Lincolnshire cinema when she was a 17-year-old schoolgirl.

After spending six years as a film, television and music critic, writing for various Scottish publications, Hannah was offered the job of artistic director of what is the longest continually running film festival in the world.

She had already been acting as a consultant for her predecessor Shane Danielsen, enlightening him about any art house gems or pertinent film industry intelligence she stumbled across on her travels.

So following the success of her "first proper job interview", she immediately plunged herself into controversy by taking the decision to move the festival from August to June.

The move was met with fierce opposition as critics claimed the move would weaken Edinburgh's August programme of arts events.

The decision did, however, help the EIFF attract £1.88 million from the UK Film Council, cash which was granted over three years to help attract a wider range of films and develop the event as a place where business deals are done.

"If it's not a significant date for the film industry then it will never provide what it needs to the public so the industry side is really important," explains Hannah.

"The working end of the festival is quite invisible, as it should be, and although it's not a trade fair, festivals increasingly need to be a place where people come and do business and meet each other.

"There are so many film festivals now that the distributors have a choice about where they take their films so we need to provide a service to them as well as to the public.

"Building up the festival to be a significant part of the film industry means we will have access to newer, better, bigger films."

Another focus of this year's festival will be on new talent and a special programme called Under the Radar is being offered.

Hannah – who admits she loves the "geeky end" of the movies – is especially looking forward to meeting documentary makers and those behind some of the stranger creations being screened.

In particular, she is excited about meeting Errol Morris, the man behind The Thin Blue Line and the Oscar winning Fog of War and whose new movie Standard Operating Procedure tackles the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Ray Harryhausen, the special effects wizard who created the "living skeletons" of Jason and the Argonauts in 1963, is also one of Hannah's quirky heroes who will be addressing movie buffs this year.

"My priority tends to be the very little filmmakers who have come a very long way who never been here before and want to meet an audience," she adds.

"Sometimes you see a film that's really, really mad and you just want to meet the person behind it. For me, it becomes about individuals that you just want to hang out with."

HANNAH'S HIGHLIGHTS

Bananaz
In this UK movie premiere, ex-Blur frontman Damon Albarn gets together with comic illustrator Jamie Hewlett to tell the story of the virtual band Gorillaz.

Shot over seven years by Ceri Levy, this very entertaining film charts the band's rise to worldwide fame and features Dennis Hopper and De La Soul.

Man on Wire
At its European premiere, this film tells the story of one of the most audacious stunts of all time – how Philippe Petit came to walk a high wire, 1368 feet above the ground, between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

Fear(s) of the Dark
Also a premiere, this creepy horror film is a collaboration by a host of artists.

Comic book legends such as Charles Burns bring their childhood night time terrors to life in this animated black and white creation that features a Japanese schoolgirl menaced by a long-dead samurai and a pack of hounds on the rampage.