Connery’s legacy honoured with new prize backed by family
Sir Sean Connery’s family is to become a major backer of the reborn Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).
A new award for best feature film at the event is to be instigated in his memory from this summer. Festival audiences will choose the winner of the annual £50,000 Sean Connery Prize from a programme of world premieres.
The prize is being backed by the Sean Connery Foundation, which was launched two years ago to “honour the legacy” of the Edinburghborn actor, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 90.
Best known for his portrayal of James Bond, Sir Sean was a regular visitor to the film festival and was a longtime patron of the 77-year-old event. The film festival prize has been announced months after the foundation revealed plans for a permanent film and TV school in the city.
It has joined forces to create the new Sean Connery Talent Lab, a year-long programme that is hoped to become a “cornerstone of the Scottish film industry”.
The foundation was also involved in an industry taskforce created to try revive the film festival after the sudden collapse of the Centre for the Moving Image, the arts charity that ran the event in recent years, in October 2022.
Its recovery plan is being led by leading producer Andrew Macdonald and Paul Ridd, who was appointed as the new EIFF director in November.
Mr Ridd has vowed to lead the event into “a bright new future with world-class films, world-class filmmakers and engaged audiences at the heart of everything we do”.
Ten specially-selected feature films will be in the running for the Sean Connery Prize, which will be one of two major awards handed out at this year’s festival, with the other going to the best short film.
His son Stephane Connery, chair of the foundation, said: “From the moment we launched the Sean C on nery foundation, we have been focused on expanding opportunities for talented young people from Scotland to access rewarding careers in the film industry, particularly those who face disadvantage. “My only wish is that Sean could join us to award the prize. He would have loved it.”