“Brave” Scottish film saves the day?

In recent years the Edinburgh International Film Festival has been struggling slightly with securing finance, and last year in 2011 it was described as a “flop” despite its long and prestigious history. But fortunately for the festival the new animated Disney-Pixar film “Brave” could save the day! Set in the Scottish Highlands and due to be released later this year, the film festival has managed to secure the European premier of the movie for their finale. And the film’s world premier is expected to go to Hollywood. Staring the (voices of) Scottish actor Billy Connolly with Kelly Macdonald playing the lead role of Merida.

Trailer:

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, was lucky enough to experience an exclusive screening of clips from the film, which is expected to boost Scotland’s tourism, and he seemed suitably impressed. The plot revolves around the character of Princess Merida who is determined to take control of her own life and gain independence from her parents; a slightly more modest ambition than Salmond’s aim for an independent Scotland.

A word on the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012:

Running from the 20^th of June till the 1^st of July there’s still plenty of time to get involved or even work at this year’s festival with a link to their website.

Kelly Macdonald:

The Scottish actress is known for playing Diane in the independent film “Trainspotting” (1996) as well as her more recent mainstream roles including Evangeline in “Nanny McPhee” (2005) and Helena Ravenclaw also known as “The Grey Lady” in the finally Harry Potter movie (2011).

Macdonald was also mentioned in one of the previous blog posts as she stars in “The Decoy Bride” with David Tennant.

As Billy Connolly also features in "Brave" playing the role of King Fergus, here is a link to the blog about his part in movie adaptation of "The Hobbit."