Outstanding Contribution to Film: Lynda Myles

It’s not hard to see why the story of The Commitments (1991) would appeal to its producer Lynda Myles. A vibrant celebration of the arts – centred around a wannabe band’s passion for soul music – tempered by a sobering finale highlighting the tragedy of wasted talent.

Celebrating artistic endeavour and advocating for creative talent to receive recognition has played a huge part in Myles’ professional life. It’s clearly evident during her eight-year tenure as director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) during the 1970s, where she transformed it into a celebrated showcase for boundary-breaking films, industry-leading conversations and dynamic retrospectives.

It’s there, too, in her successive career choices, including: director and curator of film at the Pacific Film Archive at Berkeley; producing the acclaimed films Defence of the Realm (1985); The Snapper (1993), The Van (1996), When Brendan Met Trudy (2000) and Killing Me Softly (2002). And as senior vice-president at Columbia Pictures; commissioning editor for drama at the BBC; co-executive director of the East-West Producers’ Seminar (the first training programme for young producers in Eastern Europe); and head of fiction at the National Film and Television School, where she mentored the likes of director Rose Glass.

Originally hailing from Arbroath, Myles’ career began at the EIFF in 1968, fresh out of a University of Edinburgh degree. Ironically, she was invited to help organise the Festival after co-writing a scathing critique of it in The Scotsman, and soon set about introducing discussions that passionately debated the aesthetics of cinema alongside the technical aspects of the film industry. She also added retrospectives of the likes of Sam Fuller, Roger Corman, Douglas Sirk, Frank Tashlin and Raoul Walsh to its gala programme of mainstream Hollywood and experimental world cinema premieres.

As further proof of her originality, a year before she became the first woman to be appointed as director of a film festival anywhere in the world in 1973, Myles teamed up with feminist filmmakers and theorists Claire Johnston and Laura Mulvey to programme the first-ever event devoted to women and filmmaking, entitled The Women’s Event. She would go on to prominently feature the work of many talented women filmmakers at the Festival.

No wonder then that such an inspirational trailblazer should become the subject of a film herself. The Lynda Myles Project is currently ongoing with filmmaker and university lecturer Susan Kemp and filmmaker and former EIFF director Mark Cousins, each creating side-by-side documentaries that explore the various aspects of Myles’ outstanding career. A rough cut was shown at both the EIFF and Dublin Film Festival.

Fittingly, Myles was presented with the BAFTA Scotland Outstanding Contribution to Film award at this year’s EIFF. She says: “I’m deeply touched. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to run the EIFF in the 70s and that experience shaped all my future involvement with different aspects of the industry. I’ve enjoyed so many collaborative relationships on which the film industry thrives and am so grateful for the fantastic support I’ve received.”