The party's over for the Edinburgh film festival

Next year's Edinburgh international film festival could see fewer awards and more guest curators selecting their own programmes of movies under a "radical" shake-up being planned by organisers . There will be no artistic director for the 2011 event, following the departure in August of incumbent Hannah McGill after four years. Instead, Australian-born writer James Mullighan will be handed the title of producer, working with a number of curators to shape the event. The new blueprint has been decided by the festival's patron, the Oscar-winning actor Tilda Swinton, and the former artistic director, film critic Mark Cousins. It follows poor financial returns for last year's festival, which saw ticket sales slump by 10%. Swinton and Cousins's own alternative film festival , held in Nairn in 2008 and on the road in the Highlands in 2009, was deemed a resounding hit. Cousins, who was at the helm of the event for two years in the mid-90s, will be in charge of the "artistic and creative vision" for next year's festival, billed as a "one-off" celebration to mark its birthday. Mullighan, the director of the world's largest network of independent film-makers, Shooting People, will not have overall creative charge of the programme. In particular, lavish parties and premieres will be scaled back, in part due to funding problems. The event was also told earlier this year that it will lose £1.9m in funding over the next three years following the government's decision to scrap the UK Film Council. Organisers hope big-name film-makers can be lured to the city through other methods. Cousins told the Scotsman that the festival would be "changed beyond all recognition", and compared the new blueprint to that of London's popular Meltdown music festival, which sees programmes curated by well known musicians such as David Bowie and Morrissey. He said: "The whole look and feel of the festival will be radically changed. Many of the things people are familiar with will not be there." Mullighan said he hoped to use "unusual venues" to encourage filmgoers back to the festival, which moved to June from its traditional August slot in 2008. He told the Scotsman: "The move to June allows us to use a lot of unusual venues which simply weren't available in August. We want to use them the way the fringe does."