Some diamonds to celebrate 60 years of movies

OVER the past five years, Edinburgh Film Festival director Shane Danielsen has taken audiences on a voyage of discovery. His itinerary has stretched from the forgotten films of Italian maestro Valerio Zurlini to the Swaziland childhood of Richard E Grant. He has broadened horizons, proving there is just as much excitement over a new film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan as there is over the world premiere of a science-fiction epic like Joss Whedon’s Serenity. The remarkable thing is Edinburgh audiences have been only too happy to follow him to the promised land, with attendance figures on a steady upward curve.