[5] Key figures in this initiative were the Guild's Norman Wilson and the film journalist and wartime civil servant, Forsyth Hardy.

Film critic John Russell, reviewed these changes for the London Times and wrote:[10] Last year the Edinburgh Film Festival was radically remade: out with drably conservative features and solid documentary, in with Roger Corman, international underground and the young idea.

By choosing to lay the festival’s main accent on specialist weeks devoted to a particular country or school and on retrospectives of the sort of film-maker rarely so honoured over here, the organizers immediately gave it a new twist, and removed it from the regular rat race, in which too many festivals chase too few films of any real meritDirector Murray Grigor recruited two undergraduates at University of Edinburgh, Lynda Myles and David Will, who had written an article published in The Scotsman criticising the Festival's programming as conservative.

[11] They worked with British theorist and filmmaker Peter Wollen and introduced film retrospectives, educational and publishing events to the festival.

Peter Stanfield writes that this changed the festival saying "as of 1968-69 the Festival was no longer a purveyor of middlebrow film fare; from the onwards it would assume an innovative, oppositional face, offering a platform for cultish directors and a window for some of the most exciting developments in international filmmaking.

"[11] The EIFF was funded by grants from the Scottish Film Council and Edinburgh Cooperation and, at the time, had no industry sponsorship.

In 1970 the Festival continued to show international films from Eastern and Western Europe including The Rain People and Five Easy Pieces.

[14] In 1977 the EIFF founded the Edinburgh International Television Festival as a five-day event including the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture presented by Max Ophuls.

[16] Hickey decided that he would screen Abel Gance's five-hour long film Napoleon, and this was shown as the 1981 Festival's closing performance to drum up interest and publicity.

The Edinburgh Filmhouse was under reconstruction and when opened, the main auditorium would make a 285 seating capacity venue available for the EIFF.

[17] The first week of this Festival also included the Scotch Reels event in which there were discussions and screenings of Scottish films, and the programmes were selected by Colin McArthur, who also convened the organising group.

There was also a return to hosting a Celebrity Lecture, which has been initiated by Orson Welles in 1953, and David Puttnam spoke at the Cameo.

The artistic director from September 2006 to 2010 was Hannah McGill, previously a film critic and cinema columnist for The Herald newspaper.

[28] The 60th Festival in 2006 saw American actress Sigourney Weaver attend and receive the first EIFF Diamond Award for outstanding contribution to world cinema.

[29] In 2010, Patrick Stewart chaired the Michael Powell Award Jury and attended an In Person: BAFTA Scotland interview.

[30] Following McGill's departure, a new format was announced in December 2010 with no artistic director and a series of guest curators led by producer James Mullighan.

[35] In July 2023, Screen Scotland facilitated the recruitment of Chairperson Andrew Macdonald to lead the establishment of a new company to run the festival.

[36] In November 2023, Paul Ridd, a long-term acquisitions executive at Picturehouse Cinemas, was named as the new Director of the festival.

The closing film for the Festival was Roberto Rosellini's Paisa, six documentary episodes about the liberation of Italy at the end of the Second World War.

In 1960, I Aim At the Stars was shown at the Opening Gala and the films main actors Curt Jurgens and Gia Scala attended.

The 1964 celebrated the work of Ingmar Bergman with a Retrospective screening films including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Face, Virgin Spring and The Devil's Eye.

The 1971 Festival presented a Norman McLaren Retrospective and screened films including New York Lightboard and Korean Alphabet.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover was screened as a surprise film at the 1989 Festival, and was not revealed to the audience until they had sat down in their seats.

In 1990, Clint Eastwood and Quincy Jones attended the Festival for a screening of White Hunter Black Heart.

The 1994 Festival premiered Shallow Grave, and Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox attended.

Mrs Brown premiered at the Dominion cinema for the 1997 Festival and both Billy Connolly and Judi Dench attended.

The 2000 Festival opened with a screening of Dancer in the Dark and also premiered Beautiful Creatures, Amores Perros, Audition and Billy Elliot.

As of 2024 the festival is composed of different sections including:[44] During the festival's early years, screenings took place at various cinemas and other venues across the city, including the New Victoria in Clerk Street, the Playhouse in Leith Walk, the Odeon in Lothian Road and the Central Hall, Tollcross.

Other recent venues have included Fountainpark Cineworld, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, and the VUE Cinema at the Omni Centre.