Red carpet rolls out as Killer Joe opens 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival

Killer Joe director William Friedkin and actress Gina Gershon were among the stars who took to the red carpet at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre last night for the film’s UK premiere, which opened the 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Other guests included Jim Broadbent (acting this year as chair for the Michael Powell Jury), Elliott Gould (chair of International Jury), Edith Bowman (juror) and Prometheus actor Kate Dickie.

Also present were actors Brian Cox, Steven McCole, Paul McCole and Freya Mavor, comedians Dylan Moran and Craig Hill, and Ian Rankin. EIFF artistic director Chris Fujiwara and CEO Ken Hay also attended the premiere.

Following the screening of Friedkin’s cool and blackly comic noir thriller, guests partied the night away at The National Museum of Scotland.

The evening marked the start of the 12-day festival, which will host 18 world premieres and 13 international premieres in the capital.

Highlights include In-Person events with Jim Broadbent and Elliott Gould, at which they will discuss their illustrious and extensive careers; a Shinji Somai retrospective, and special screenings including a new digitally restored print of Lawrence Of Arabia and Dr Seuss’ The Lorax.

The Closing Gala will be the European premiere of Disney-Pixar’s Brave on June 30, and the Festival finishes with Best of the Fest on Sunday July 1. 

William Friedkin’s Killer Joe is released in the UK on June 29, and stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church.

In the film 22 year-old Chris Smith (Hirsch) is a drug dealer down on his luck, but things are about to go from bad to worse when he hires the unexpectedly charming hit man Killer Joe (McConaughey) to murder his own mother for her $50,000 life insurance policy. With barely a dollar to his name Chris agrees to offer up his younger sister, Dottie (Temple), as sexual collateral in exchange for Joe’s services until he receives the insurance money.  That is, if it ever does come in.

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