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| GFF co-directors Allan Hunter and Allison Gardner with ushers Adrianne Calgie and Anthony Carrol. Photo: Eoin Carey |
This year's Glasgow Film Festival line-up was announced today at Hotel M, near in the GFT where it was born and which remains at the heart of it today, though it has now spread out across many more venues in a celebration of the city's relationship with cinema. Opening with Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young and closing with Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure, the 11th edition is packed with UK, European and world premières. It celebrates the career of Ingrid Bergman and features an exciting strand focused on Australian film, mingling exciting new work with old favourites
Frightfest returns to Glasgow this year with a packed selection of films, plus all the usual competitions and prizes. There are a host of films and events aimed at gamers, with Rab Florence taking over the city's Science Centre for his famous Video Game Empty. Dress in your post-apocalyptic bet for a special screening of Mad Max 2, or bring out the power suits for a celebration of strong women in film. Kids can look forward to the première of the Shaun The Sheep Movie and big kids can enjoy a rollicking adventure with The Goonies.
"As ever, we’ve tried first and foremost to create a programme that our audiences will enjoy, and our Special Events strand in particular should be great fun for all," said festival director Allison Gardner. "There are certain happy accidents that you only notice once you’ve pulled the programme together - in particular, we have exceptionally strong ranges of East Asian cinema and documentary film making this year, with very exciting UK and European premieres from some of the world’s most highly-regarded directors.
"Again accidentally, there’s a strong feminist slant running through this year’s selection, with some hugely talented female directors coming to the fore, a number of events addressing women in – and on – film, and a series of exceptionally strong lead roles for women in all areas of the programme. We didn’t set out to create a 50/50 gender-balanced shortlist for our inaugural Audience Award – these are the programming team’s ten top films across the programme by early-career directors – but the fact that it happened anyway speaks to the increasingly large number of female directors finding ways to make brilliant, innovative cinema, and is we hope a really positive sign that the historic imbalance in the industry is changing."
The festival will run from 18 February to 1 March. We'll be bringing you full coverage throughout, so watch this space.
