I’m more exhausted than I’ve ever been. I’ve got more to do than I’ve ever had in my life.” Hannah McGill, the new artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, is putting the final touches to her inaugural programme and the months of preparation are starting to take their toll. “Everybody goes, ‘Oh, you just get to pick a load of films, that’s nice.’ But the logistics are insane.”

It is a festival that inevitably has something of the artistic director’s personal stamp on it, says McGill, a former critic, simply because it is her decision which films are prioritised. “On the other hand,” she says, “I have been really conscious of it being a joint effort. The other programmers are probably having a bit more of a voice than they used to.”

The festival opens with David Mackenzie’s Hallam Foe and closes with the second directorial outing for the actress Julie Delpy in 2 Days in Paris. “I suppose the films are quite similar because they are both quite up and they are both, to some degree, romantic comedies. But they are both off-beat with a bit of edge. And those two films reflect it being a slightly more upbeat festival than people might expect from Edinburgh.” McGill promises plenty of comedies and what she describes as “shiny films”.

There is also a focus on writing and screenwriting. “Partly by design, and partly by what is around, we have a lot of films that are based on books, especially films that are based on memoirs. Some of our major films, such as A Mighty Heart, Controland When Did You Last See Your Father? are big memoir films.” Guests in this field include Irvine Welsh, Paul Laverty, the screenwriter who works with Ken Loach, and the writer and director Judd Apatow, who is presenting his latest film, Knocked Up, and hosting a masterclass in writing comedy.

This year’s retrospective also honours Anita Loos, the writer of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. “It has been so much fun finding out about her. She has some 131 credits, a huge career. She knew everyone, she was an amazing wit and a gossip. And also it tells you something about early Hollywood. People think that women were left out, but they weren’t. It wasn’t a high-status job then, which means that a lot of women and immigrants did it. A woman like her who was very smart could really establish herself. She was coming in to do rewrites when F. Scott Fitzgerald was too drunk.”

Edinburgh is also working with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation on another theme – the restoration of prints. The festival will show the whole of Fassbinder’s remastered Berlin Alexander-platz, which, at more than 15 hours, is the longest narrative film made. “It’s going to be in the small screen at the Film-house, which I can only imagine is going to smell rather peculiar by the end. You have the option of watching a bit of it every day or watching the whole of it over one weekend.”

Those who aren’t tempted by a German cinema marathon can rub shoulders with the wealth of guests. The director John Waters is coming to town to support John Waters: This Filthy World, a film of his stand-up routine and monologues. The actors Sam Morton, Stellan Skarsgård, Chris Cooper and Tilda Swinton will all be in town to support films. And Leigh and Stephen Frears will both conduct master-classes.

Something for everyone? “We’ve got a really nice balance of up-and-coming and big films, and stuff for people to root around in and discover, plus the old remastered movies, which I think is a very important part of what we do.”

Edinburgh Film Festival (www.edfilmfest.org.uk0131-623 8030) Aug 15-26