Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has announced that the opening night film of this year’s Midnight Madness strand will be the World Premiere of Chee Keong Cheung’s unique and riotously inventive action thriller Bad Day at the Office.
Filmed from first-person perspective using GoPros, Bad Day at the Office follows Karl (John Hannah), after he wakes up in a wrecked hotel room with no memory of the night before. When he discovers a dead body in the bathtub, it sets into motion a breathless and explosive series of events that force Karl and hotel maid Molly (Radha Mitchell) on a blind descent into a deceptive world of confusion and conspiracy.
The film also stars Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time), Tamer Hassan (The Football Factory), Branko Tomović (24: Live Another Day), Victor Gardener (Fast and Furious 6), Roxanne McKee (Game of Thrones) and Tim Fellingham (Final Destination 5).
Produced under UK based Action Xtreme banner, producers on the film include Andreas Roald (Triangle of Sadness, Memoria), Chee Keong Cheung and Ioanna Karavela (Redcon-1). Bad Day at the Office is written by Oliver Morran (The Experiment) and Chee Keong Cheung.
The Midnight Madness strand runs throughout EIFF and unleashes the very best in new genre cinema from around the world with recent years seeing the UK Premieres of Alien: Romulus, The Substance, The Toxic Avenger and World Premiere of Ben Wheatley’s Bulk.
Chee Keong Cheung has said: “It's an incredible honour and privilege to be selected to screen as the opening film of the Midnight Madness strand and have our World Premiere at EIFF 2026. Bad Day at the Office was an intense, very physical, technically complex and thrilling creative journey. I was fortunate to have a truly amazing cast and crew who helped me realise this crazy epic vision. I'm excited to be able to share this film with audiences and hope they will have as much fun immersing themselves and going along the ride as we all had making it. I'm grateful to Paul, Emma and the entire EIFF team for their belief, support, enthusiasm and giving us this special and prestigious launch pad to introduce Bad Day at the Office into the world and their tireless efforts in championing independent filmmaking voices.”
The programme for this year’s EIFF will launch on 1 July 2026 with more information on this year’s Industry Programme to follow. This year’s EIFF runs from 13 – 19 August 2026 and opens with the International Premiere of Edinburgh-born filmmaker Louis Paxton’s debut feature The Incomer and closes with Louise Lockwood’s powerful debut documentary feature Bel.
EIFF 2026 is supported by Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund.
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Image credits: Still courtesy of Action Xtreme