'Festival' is a black comedy set during the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival. The film is based around both the judging of a major comedy award and the performers at one of the smaller venues. Various plot strands interweave, including the bitter relationship between a famous self-obsessed British comic and his ever-suffering assistant, an actress debuting at the festival with a one-woman show about Dorothy Wordsworth and a depressed, rich housewife who spies on the stoned Canadian theatre troupe to whom she has rented out her house
Acting
Chris O'Dowd's desperate hunger for fame is physically painful
Writing
Griffin's script knows every toxic Fringe dynamic intimately
Production
Genuine Edinburgh locations capture the festival's beautiful squalor
Director
Annie Griffin
Lyndsey Marshal
Faith Myers
Chris O'Dowd
Tommy O'Dwyer
Daniela Nardini
Joan Gerard
Stephen Mangan
Sean Sullivan
Lucy Punch
Nicky Romanowski
Raquel Cassidy
Petra Loewenberg
Clive Russell
Brother Mike
Amelia Bullmore
Micheline Menzies
Megan Dodds
Dina
Meredith MacNeill
Mary
Jonah Lotan
Rick
Richard Ayoade
Dwight Swan
Duncan Duff
Gordon Menzies
Matthew Holness
Roger - Lighting Man
Jimmy Chisholm
Radio Producer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Annie Griffin won the Perrier Comedy Award herself in 1994, making this essentially a revenge document.
The Perrier Award (now Edinburgh Comedy Award) has launched British comedy royalty; the film's bitter portrayal caused genuine industry grumbling at its 2005 release.
US
