It’s a heady atmosphere — an exclusive party for the British film Snowcake finds Steve Coogan and Alan Rickman both holding court in a rosewood-lined drawing room. We’re in Edinburgh’s coolest member’s bar (possible Edinburgh’s only member’s bar), The Hallion. The celeb wattage is so dazzling that apparently Brian De Palma turned up at the bash and nobody noticed. All this — and J.K. Rowling - and it’s only the second night of the film festival.

Edinburgh had started as it clearly meant to go on, with an opening-night party for The Flying Scotsman that blew spots off previous years’ events. A new location offered an expansive open-air courtyard and an unusually balmy evening had revellers thronging outdoors. The film’s star, Johnny Lee Miller, was conspicuous by his absence, but other cast members made the effort. A kilted Brian Cox munched on the burgers scorched on braziers manned by ruddy, slightly flustered catering staff. Elsewhere a radiant Laura Fraser was mobbed by fans at every turn.

And while the festival always has a few casualties by its end (single malt at 3am has a kick like a mule and people are inevitably going to get damaged), this festival had walking wounded right at the very beginning in the bruised and battered form of the director and film buff Richard Jobson. Recently returned from Hong Kong, where he has been prepping his latest picture, Jobson had a painful eye infection that he was hiding behind shades and a broken wrist sustained after asking the fight choreographer Woo-ping Yuen to show him a few moves.

Goodness knows what kind of state he’ll be in by the weekend, when the likes of Kevin Smith and Charlize Theron are scheduled to have arrived and the serious partying will have started.

But this festival is about more than carousing — there are movies to be seen. Two particularly strong British pictures are generating an early buzz. Although it’s difficult to second-guess the decisions of the jury for the Michael Powell Award, my vote for best of British this year goes to London to Brighton, an outstanding, hard-hitting drama that spans a day in the life of a browbeaten hooker, her pimp, a runaway child and the man who wants to kill them all.

Written and directed by the first-time feature film-maker Paul Andrew Williams, this is a supremely confident piece of storytelling. The performances, particularly that of the excellent Lorraine Stanley, are blisteringly raw; the story is taut, economical and utterly compelling. You’ll leave the cinema feeling as if you’ve been in a street brawl, but you certainly won’t forget it.

My tip for the break-out commercial success of the British films being shown in Edinburgh this year is Life & Lyrics, a bold, energetic urban tale starring the rapper turned actor Ashley Walters, formerly of So Solid Crew.

Star-crossed lovers from rival hip-hop crews find themselves competing on opposite sides of an explosive open mike competition. Meanwhile Jamaican gangsters are looking to recoup a debt and one young rapper is hoping to contact the mother who gave him up for adoption.

Everything about this slick, highly enjoyable picture screams quality, from the camera-hogging performances to the assured writing and confident ear for language.

But most of all this is Walters’s film. The man formerly known as Asher D starts the movie as the promising young talent from Bullet Boy, but by the time the credits roll he’s a fully fledged star.

There are few places better than the Edinburgh Film Festival for audiences wishing to take the pulse of the British Film industry. For better or worse, the health of our film industry is laid bare for all to see. This year’s festival brings familiarly mixed messages. While London to Brighton and Life & Lyrics are both extremely encouraging, and there are several intriguing oddities on show, there are a few minor disappointments as well.

The organisers have every right to be pleased with the reception for The Flying Scotsman, a solid crowd-pleaser about the Scottish cyclist and sometime world record holder Graeme Obree. The warm response to the film is a double triumph for the festival as the organisers also managed to avert a potentially embarrassing protest at the premiere by crew members and extras who remain unpaid after the production company Mel Films Limited went into liquidation.

This unfortunate situation, while a bit of a depressing indictment of the state of production in the UK, will, it is hoped, be remedied once the film is sold to a distributor.

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• Oscars

• Cannes

Editor's choice

• U2 at Nou Camp Stadium, Barcelona
• The 50 Best Movie Villains
• The 15 golden rules of theatre etiquette