MUMBAI: Hannah McGill, the artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), will step down after four years in charge to take up a writing career.

McGill oversaw the festival‘s move from August to June and pushed hard to rebrand the festival as a focus for new and independent British film-making talent. 

She now plans to return to critical work in the Glasgow Herald, Scotsman, Guardian and other newspapers from where she took up the film festival post in September 2006.

During her tenure, the EIFF screened award-winning films such as Control, Moon, Man on Wire and The Hurt Locker as well as Hollywood hits such as Wall-E and Toy Story 3.

McGill‘s departure comes at a difficult time for the festival, which has just been told it will lose ?1.9m in funding over the next three years following the government‘s decision to scrap the UK Film Council.