The 22nd edition of the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF), set to take place from 25 February to 8 March 2026, has rolled out its full program of 126 films featuring Angelina Jolie, Charli XCX, Josh O’Connor, and Jude Law.
Scottish films will open and close the festival, with Felipe Bustos Sierra’s documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street kicking off the festival; and closing the festival is James McAvoy’s directorial debut, California Schemin’, based on the improbable true story of Scottish rap duo Silibil N’ Brains, a.k.a. Gavin Bain (Séamus McLean Ross) and Billy Boyd (Samuel Bottomley).
Scottish films having their world premiere at GFF26 include Sailm nan Daoine (Psalms of the People), Jack Archer’s documentary about Scotland’s cultural heritage of traditional Gaelic psalm singing. The film follows Rob MacNeacail across Scotland and Ireland as he shares Gaelic language psalms with the community. Additionally, Welcome to G-Town is the debut feature from identical twin brothers Ben McQuaid and Nathan McQuaid, which follows shape-shifting aliens that have landed in Glasgow.
Marc Silver’s documentary, Molly vs THE MACHINES, will also have its world premiere at the festival, with nationwide screenings also happening concurrently. The story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter’s death and his fightback against how the most powerful corporations of the modern age operate.
FrightFest, GFF’s resident horror festival, will also open with the world premiere of Vasily Chuprina’s relentless, high-stakes action thriller Jailbroken, a claustrophobic pressure-cooker set entirely within a single prison cell. The film features a Scottish cast led by Bryan Larkin, David Hayman, Shauna MacDonald and Armin Karima.
Other Scottish films having their UK premieres include Edinburgh filmmaker Sean Dunn’s debut, The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford. Shot on location in Edinburgh and Balerno, and featuring Gayle Rankin, this black comedy stars Peter Mullan as a local history-fixated tour guide who descends into madness as a big-budget fantasy TV show takes over his small town. Iranian-Scottish co-production, Without Permission, by Aberdeen-based British-Iranian director Hassan Nazer, is an intelligent docufiction hybrid about an exiled filmmaker who returns to Iran to shoot a film. The feature is anchored in authentic interviews with a group of Iranian children who reveal their sweetly hopeful dreams for the future. Filmed primarily in and around Glasgow, Midwinter Break is a touching drama, based on a novel by the same name by Bernard MacLaverty, about a retired married couple who live in Glasgow (played by Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds), who find themselves reflecting on the past and considering their future while on an Amsterdam getaway. Partially shot in Glasgow and Perthshire, My Father’s Island spotlights the relationship between a 13-year-old (Woody Norman) and his father (played by Swann Arlaud), as they spend a year together on a remote Nordic island.
Films with ties to Scotland that will have their Scottish premiere, including the documentary Super Nature, shot collaboratively across 25 different countries using vintage Super 8 cameras. Raoul Peck’s documentary, Orwell: 2+2=5, braids together George Orwell’s biography and the writing of his final book, 1984, on Jura, and features an exploration of its ideas, including doublethink, Big Brother and newspeak, which resonate more than ever today. Completing the selection is The Son and the Sea, shot on location primarily in the Scottish village of Pennan, which sees two best mates travel from London to the northern Aberdeenshire coast.
Set against the wide open landscapes of North Wales is Effi o Blaenau, a Welsh language film adaptation of Gary Owen’s much lauded and widely performed monodrama, Iphigenia in Splott. Directed by Marc Evans, the film follows Effie, a young woman who learns firsthand the personal costs of our societal shortcomings, with a tour-de-force lead performance by up-and-coming actor Leisa Gwenllian.
The festival will also showcase the world premiere of Sinsin and the Mouse, a sensitive and elegantly shot drama that accompanies a young woman, reeling from the death of her mother, on a trip to Taipei, where an encounter with a young man begins to help her break through her grief; and the international premiere of Steal Away, a psychosexual fairy tale set in an alternate reality, where a Congolese woman’s warm welcome into a grand mansion, owned by the mother of a white woman her own age, slowly reveals a far more unsettling desire beneath its surface.
UK premieres include Angelina Jolie in Couture by Alice Winocour, which depicts the world of Parisian high fashion from the perspectives of the working-class women involved.
Charli XCX stars in Erupcja, directed by Pete Ohs, where two friends with an explosive relationship meet in Warsaw. The Dutchman, adapted from the Amiri Baraka play on identity, assimilation and racial power dynamics in America, focuses on Lula (Kate Mara), a white woman, and Clay (André Holland), a black man, riding the subway in New York City. Danny Dyer gives a stellar performance in One Last Deal, a twisting and engaging chamber piece about a football agent desperate to close a contract.
Willem Dafoe stars in two of the festival’s films, Late Fame, which follows an author of a poetry collection that gains appreciation years later among a group of young artists, and The Birthday Party, where a billionaire hosts a birthday party for his daughter on his private Greek island. Scotland-born Emma Laird stars in Satisfaction, a tense psychological drama unfolding across two time periods that charts how a young British composer’s encounter in Greece with a sympathetic new friend leads her to confront a buried traumatic event from her past.
Eddie Marsan and Éanna Hardwicke star in crime thriller No Ordinary Heist, as two bank employees who are forced to help commit a robbery to protect their families, inspired by the true story of one of the UK’s largest cash thefts. The Last Viking, an absurdist comedy revolving around a released robber’s attempts to recover his loot, will see Mads Mikkelsen star as the thief’s brother.
Foreign language films include Franz, Agnieszka Holland’s kaleidoscopic and playful biopic depicting the career and personal trajectory of Franz Kafka. Unidentified is Haifaa Al-Mansour’s thriller about a police clerk and true-crime fan who becomes determined to solve the mystery of a murdered schoolgirl. Between Dreams and Hope, directed by Farnoosh Samadi, follows a trans man who needs his father’s permission for gender-confirming surgery as he travels with his partner back to his Iranian home village. Sundays is Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s sensitive and balanced drama following the emotionally turbulent journey of a teenager and her family after she announces that she is considering becoming a nun.
Tribeny Rai brings Shape of Momo about a woman returning from Delhi to her family home in the mountains, where she must contend with intergenerational tensions and the cultural pressures from the wider community. Lucía Aleñar Iglesias brings Forastera, where a teenager struggling with grief over her grandmother steps into her grandmother’s clothes and vacant role. And Laurent Slama brings A Second Life, which follows a concierge at breaking point who meets a free-spirited and warm-hearted traveller who might change her life.
Directors showcasing their second features include Richard Hawkins’s Think of England, an intelligent wartime satire about six people sent to a remote location with orders to make pornographic films to raise troop morale, with an ensemble cast that includes Natalie Quarry, John McCrea and Ronni Ancona. Damiano Michieletto’s Primavera is a sumptuous period drama set in 18th-century Venice, where a young virtuoso violinist finds her life changing dramatically after the orphanage where she lives hires Vivaldi as an instructor.
GFF26 will also include four animated features, including Allah is Not Obliged, which follows the turbulent life of a 10-year-old orphan coerced into becoming a child soldier. Death Does Not Exist features Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s distinctive dreamlike hand-drawn animation, depicting a young activist grappling with guilt in the tragic wake of a failed armed attack.
This year’s programme features two unrelated films, both by the name of Hen. The black-and-white slow-burn South African thriller Hen, which sees a devout husband and his wife start to lose their grip on reality after they take in a strange young boy, and the Greek drama Hen, shot from the perspective of a chicken desperate to raise a family, which sees a human tragedy develop in the background.
Comedy offerings include: The Baltimorons, a warm-hearted comedy about a newly sober improv comedian who embarks on a Christmas Eve odyssey across Baltimore with his older emergency dentist; and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a spin-off from Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s cult comedy web series and TV show about two hapless bandmates trying to book a gig at the legendary Toronto Rivoli.
Meanwhile, The Wizard of the Kremlin, starring Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, and Paul Dano, is Olivier Assayas’s political thriller, adapted from Giuliano da Empoli’s novel of the same name, which follows a young Russian filmmaker manoeuvring through the turbulence and uncertainty of a new era when he unexpectedly becomes an adviser to Vladimir Putin during his ascent in post-Soviet Russia. The Garden of Earthly Delights takes audiences into the seedy underbelly of Manila, as the drama explores post-colonial and capitalist exploitation through the story of a street kid, his sister, and a Dutch tourist whose visit doesn’t go as planned.
Scottish premieres at the festival include Father Mother Sister Brother, Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion-winning triptych of stories exploring familial relationships. The all-star cast features Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps and Tom Waits. Stephen Graham and Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough star in The Good Boy, which sees an out-of-control teenager who monetises videos of his criminal deeds online, kidnapped by a stranger who intends to force him into being a ‘good boy’ within a twisted family dynamic.
George MacKay returns with starring roles in two Scottish premieres. Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada sees a mysterious ship reappearing after vanishing for 30 years. Two men (MacKay and Callum Turner) join its crew and net a large catch, discovering on their return that they have sailed through time. Broken English, featuring MacKay and Tilda Swinton, is a formally playful swansong documentary, following Marianne Faithfull as she looks back over her long career, sifting out fact from folklore, and featuring the bohemian rock queen’s final musical performance. Dead Man’s Wire will also have its Scottish premiere at the festival. Gus Van Sant’s stylish 1970s-set true-crime thriller is about a disgruntled debtor who kidnaps the adult son of a mortgage company boss, featuring an all-star cast of Al Pacino, Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo and Kelly Lynch.
This year’s festival will host the premieres of 15 documentaries, including Militantropos, an observational documentary articulating the devastating impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on everyday lives forced into transformation by war. With Hasan in Gaza uses rediscovered footage of a road trip through Gaza with a resident guide, Hasan Elboubou. Hasan, whose fate is now unknown, provides the poignant bedrock for this reflection on memory and loss in Gaza in the years since. A Fox Under a Pink Moon, which won best international film at the 2025 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, is an intimate documentary capturing life for teenage artist Soraya, an Afghan refugee who shot much of the footage herself over five years, as she tries to travel from Iran to reach her mother in Austria.
Megadoc sees British director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) going behind the scenes as Francis Ford Coppola directs his passion project, Megalopolis, offering an eye-opening and entertaining insight into the Apocalypse Now filmmaker’s unconventional working process, and featuring a star-studded line-up of famous faces, including Adam Driver, Jon Voight and Aubrey Plaza. Lomu explores the tragically short life and extraordinary career of Rugby Union All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu. Jaripeo transports us into the world of the hypermasculine jaripeo, a traditional Mexican-style rodeo, including bull and horse riding. Audiences are guided into another world full of queer desire and longing.
GFF26 Audience Award
Glasgow Film Festival’s longest-running award returns this year and will be given to an exceptional first or second-time director. As always, the award is chosen by the most important people: the GFF audience.
The 10-strong shortlist of films from across the world, which will all have UK premieres at the festival, includes eight first-time directors, six of whom are women.
Live a Little, also featured in the Country Focus strand ‘Take a Chance on Me: Swedish Cinema’, follows a young backpacker’s exploration of her boundaries when she wakes up in a man’s bed with no memory of what happened the night before. Hailey Gates’ first feature, Atropia, which won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is an absurdist satire starring Alia Shawkat as an aspiring actress who works on a military base simulation of Iraq, and Callum Turner as the war veteran who could derail her career.
Bouchra is an animated docufiction hybrid consideration of immigrant life and queer identity that follows a coyote Moroccan filmmaker in New York as she navigates creative endeavours and her relationship with her mother in Casablanca. First Light is a beautifully shot and absorbing drama centring on a nun in a remote part of the Philippines who experiences a crisis of faith after an encounter with a dying young man spurs her to question her beliefs.
The Last One for the Road is a wryly funny road trip to nowhere with a couple of 50-something drinking buddies as they roam the Italian backwaters perpetually in search of that final drink. Nino is a powerful and uplifting drama following a young man embarking on an odyssey across Paris after receiving a devastating diagnosis.
On a String, written, directed, and starring American stand-up comedian and violist Isabel Hagen, is a laugh-out-loud indie comedy, reminiscent of Frances Ha, which sees Hagen as a Juilliard-trained viola player navigating comic encounters and love mishaps as she prepares for an important audition. Rebuilding is a hopeful and humanistic drama starring Josh O’Connor and Amy Madigan, about a Coloradan cowboy who is trying to reconnect with his nine-year-old daughter while coming to terms with the loss of his home in a wildfire.
A Place for Her sees a host of recognisable French stars in an uplifting and heart-warming social drama, inspired by the real La Maison des Femmes de Saint-Denis in Paris, focusing on the everyday challenges and triumphs of the staff and attendees at a women’s healthcare and support centre. Finally, Pasa Faho is a warm-hearted drama celebrating family and heritage. Unfolding in a Melbourne suburb’s Igbo community, it charts a struggling shoe shop owner’s attempts to reconnect with his 12-year-old son, who has just moved to live with him.
FrightFest, self-styled “Woodstock of gore”, returns for its 21st year from March 5-7, 2026, with eight new feature films and eight short films spanning nine countries across four continents.
Opening with the world premiere of Jailbroken, the programme also includes the world premiere of Bury the Devil, a fast-paced, twist-filled exorcism thriller that throws audiences straight into the action. This is followed by the world premiere of Howard J. Ford’s creature feature Bone Keeper, a monstrous tale of survival set deep within a remote cave system, with the director and cast introducing the film.
The UK premiere of documentary Boorman and the Devil, directed by David Kittredge, will explore the troubled legacy of Exorcist II: The Heretic through interviews with John Boorman, Linda Blair, Louise Fletcher and others. Meanwhile, the UK premiere of Glenn McQuaid’s camp sci-fi horror comedy The Restoration at Grayson Manor will see classic monster mayhem meet gothic comedy. Kenichi Ugana’s UK premiere of The Curse is a shocking satire updating The Ring for the TikTok age.
Other highlights include the international premiere of Connor Marsden’s visceral shocker Violence, a ferocious punk-infused love story wrapped in action-horror intensity, and the FrightFest Short Film Showcase, highlighting eight exciting new directors from the UK and Ireland.
The thrills will continue with the international premiere of Japanese horror The Convenience Store, directed by Jirô Nagae and adapted from the cult game Chilla’s Art, starring Kotona Minami as a worker facing terrifying events during the midnight shift.
The final evening opens with the world premiere of Red Riding, Craig Conway’s gritty contemporary reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood, introduced by Conway, executive producer Neil Marshall and cast members. This is followed by the UK premiere of Karmadonna, Aleksander Radivojević’s dark, dystopian fable about faith, corruption and brutal moral choices.
FrightFest concludes with the world premiere of Australian fantasy horror Deathkeeper, directed by Tristan Barr, a haunting and mysterious adaptation of Vasilios Bouzas’ novella series that delivers an unsettling and unforgettable finale.
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