The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“In line with the UK Government and Scottish Government’s public health advice we are sad to announce that we are postponing the 74th EIFF due to take place in June,” said the organisers in a statement. “We are looking at which elements of the festival can be delivered later in the year and hope to share news on that in due course.
Our first priority is the health and wellbeing of our staff, filmmaker guests and audiences, and we wish you all health and strength through this difficult time.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh International Festival has delayed the announcement of its 2020 programme.
“It is important to emphasise that we are still planning to deliver a festival this August but we think it best to wait a number of weeks before launching our programme,” read an online post. “We are working as quickly as we can to provide certainty to everyone. Our focus remains on presenting the festival, getting artists back on our stages and audiences back into concert halls and theatres as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Edinburgh International Festival Fringe also plans to go ahead at the present time.