Edinburgh industry program 2026 adds Ewan McGregor and Branagh
EIFF’s five-day industry lineup includes a new U.K. Film Conference, career talks and sessions on financing, genre and adaptation.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
The Edinburgh industry program 2026 is going star-heavy, with Ewan McGregor, Kenneth Branagh, Ken Burns, Christine Vachon and Bruce Dern joining a five-day slate at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Running Aug. 14 to 18 at EIFF’s Festival Hub at Central Hall, the program mixes onstage career conversations with working sessions on low-budget filmmaking, private investment, literary adaptation, second features, genre cinema and the colonial gaze.
The headline addition is the first U.K. Film Conference, scheduled for Aug. 15. EIFF is positioning it as a broad check-in on British independent film at a time when the program says producers are dealing with tight budgets, blended finance and pressure to prove audience demand earlier in development.
What is in the Edinburgh industry program 2026?
The U.K. Film Conference will open with BFI CEO Ben Roberts in conversation with Picturehouse creative director Clare Binns about the future of independent film in the U.K.
One session, “Would This Get Made?,” will test how earlier British film landmarks including “Whisky Galore!,” “If…,” “Trainspotting” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” might fare if they were pitched in 2026.
That discussion brings together Killer Films co-founder Christine Vachon, Film4’s Stefanie Fahrion, BBC Film’s Alice Ojha, Altitude’s Laura Wilson and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates’ Simon Renshaw to discuss financing, release plans and audience appetite.
The conference also includes “Low Budget, High Ambition,” about producing under leaner conditions, and “New Nightmares,” a look at genre filmmaking with Max Minghella, Prano Bailey-Bond, Chee Keong Cheung and Joby Stephens.
Who is appearing at EIFF’s industry events?
Vachon will also have her own talk on Aug. 14. Ken Burns, known for documentary histories of the American West, Vietnam and the American Revolution, will sit down with journalist Dave Calhoun.
McGregor’s appearance comes in a BAFTA Scotland-backed conversation as EIFF marks 30 years since “Trainspotting.” The Danny Boyle film turned a Scottish story into an international cultural touchstone, and the anniversary gives the festival one of its biggest built-in talking points.
Branagh appears on Aug. 15, when he will receive EIFF’s first Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award. The same day also features “Beyond the Debut,” presented with BIFA Springboard.
That session focuses on one of the independent film world’s toughest steps: turning a first feature into a lasting career. Writers, directors and producers will discuss development, casting, finance, sales and distribution between a debut and a second film.
On Monday, “From Page to Screen” will bring together Sarah Brocklehurst, Miriam Battye, Jay Parini and Marc Turtletaub from EIFF selections “Extra Geography” and “Borges and Me.” Dr. Pasquale Iannone will moderate the literary adaptation session.
Dern will later appear with Variety chief film critic Guy Lodge for a career conversation covering work with Alfred Hitchcock, Roger Corman, Hal Ashby, Walter Hill, Quentin Tarantino and Alexander Payne.
The program closes Aug. 18 with “Lights, Camera, Capital,” a Screen Scotland-backed pilot featuring angel investor Lynne Cadenhead alongside producers and private investors. Paul Sng’s “Unmaking the Colonial Gaze in Cinema” follows.
EIFF CEO and festival director Paul Ridd called the inaugural U.K. Film Conference “something of the jewel in our crown.”
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.