Scotland’s biggest film festival, the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) set to take place 25 February to 8 March, 2026 has unveiled its Retrospective Program, along with its Country Focus theme.
Glasgow Film Festival
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2026 Glasgow Film Festival Reveals Retrospective Program with ‘Selma’ and Sweden as Country Focus
Selma (Paramount Pictures, Pathé)
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John Maclean’s ‘Tornado’ Starring Tim Roth to Kick Off 21st Glasgow Film Festival Lineup
Tornado by John Maclean (Lionsgate UK) The World premiere of Tornado, Scottish director John Maclean’s survival thriller will open the 21st Glasgow Film Festival 2025 (GFF25) taking place from 26 February to 9 March 2025.
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Adura Onashile’s GIRL to Open Glasgow Film Festival 2023
Déborah Lukumuena and Le’Shantey Bonsu in Girl by Adura Onasile | Photo by Saskia Coulson Following its World premiere at Sundance, Adura Onashile’s Glasgow-shot debut feature Girl will make its UK premiere as the opening film of Glasgow Film Festival 2023.
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Marley Morrison’s SWEETHEART Wins Audience Award at Glasgow Film Festival 2021
Sweetheart directed by Marley Morrison The coming-out drama film Sweetheart directed by Marley Morrison was voted the Audience Award winner of the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival. Sweetheart is a sharply observed coming-of-age story that charts the relationship between two young women, during a summer holiday at a caravan park in Dorset. The Audience Award is the only award given by GFF and is voted for by the audience.
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MINARI to Open, SPRING BLOSSOM to Close 2021 Glasgow Film Festival
Steven Yeun in Minari by Lee Isaac Chung The UK premiere of director Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, starring Steven Yeun, will open 2021 Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) on Wednesday February 24. The award-winning autobiographical drama won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and US Dramatic Audience Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
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Glasgow Film Festival 2020 Announces Women-Directed Opening and Closing Night Gala Films
Alice Winocour’s Proxima starring Eva Green The 2020 Glasgow Film Festival will open and close with the UK premiere of major feature films directed by women. The 16th annual festival will open on February 26 with Alice Winocour’s Proxima starring Eva Green and close on Sunday March 8 with Coky Giedroyc’s How to Build a Girl.
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Jonah Hill’s MID90s to Open, Brian Welsh’s BEATS to Close 2019 Glasgow Film Festival
Mid90s by Jonah Hill The 15th Glasgow Film Festival will open on February 20 with the UK premiere of Jonah Hill’s directorial debut Mid90s. The coming-of-age comedy-drama written and directed by Hill, stars Sunny Suljic (The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird) and Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them), and follows a 13-year-old boy who begins to hang out with an older group of skateboarders while living in 1990s Los Angeles. The soundtrack features an original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross alongside original ‘90s hip-hop.
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FrightFest Announces Glasgow Film Festival 2018 Line-up, Kicks off with GHOST STORIES
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Ghost Stories[/caption]
FrightFest, the horror fantasy event returns to Glasgow Film Festival for its 13th year, from Thursday March 1, to Saturday March 3, 2018.
This year’s bold line-up, once again housed at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre, embraces the latest horror, fantasy and sci-fi discoveries from ten countries, spanning four continents, reflecting the world-wide popularity of the genre.
Ghost Stories remains one of the scariest stage shows ever seen and on Thursday night FrightFest kicks off with a special screening of Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s smash hit phenomenon. Starring Martin Freedman, Paul Whitehouse, as well as Nyman, this unforgettable screen adaptation terrifies in a whole new thrilling and chilling dimension. Jeremy and Andy will be attending. This is followed by the Scottish premiere of Brian O’Malley’s supernatural romance The Lodgers, a masterful Irish set Gothic ghost story, starring Charlotte Vega and David Bradley.
Friday’s line-up lunges into vampiric action with the UK premiere of Dragos Buliga’s The Wanderers: Quest of the Demon Hunter, an inspired modern twist on Transylvanian mythology. This is followed by the world premiere of writer/director Kelly Greene’s pastiche gem Attack of the Bat Monsters. If you liked The Love Witch, this is your new retro-perfect jam and Kelly will be in attendance. Next up is the UK premiere of The Ravenous, writer/director Robin Aubert’s surreal and wickedly humorous addition to the Living Dead canon.
The 8.45pm presentation is the UK premiere of the powerfully gripping Cold Skin. At the vanguard of French extreme cinema, director Xavier Gens made his name with Frontiere(s) and The Divide. Now he brings us a stunning adaptation of Albert Sánchez Piñol’s acclaimed novel that’s part H.P. Lovecraft, part Joseph Conrad and Xavier will be at the festival to discuss his film. Rounding off the evening is the European premiere of Primal Rage, a creature feature that blows the lid off traditional Bigfoot mythology. Special effects guru/director Patrick Magee has created an intelligent, cunning primitive warrior being guaranteed to terrify.
Getting the Saturday program off to a demonically hellish start is the UK premiere of Paul Urkijo’s visually breath-taking fantasy The Blacksmith and the Devil a vivid Basque fairy-tale, produced by Spanish legend Alex de la Iglesia, This is followed by the European premiere of supernatural chiller Pyewacket, a beautifully paced, dread-filled study of occult belief by writer/director Adam MacDonald. Next up is the UK premiere of Friendly Beast, Gabriela Amaral Almeida’s intense shocker, which explores the latent evil within us all.
Climb on board for a fiendishly tense slay-ride as the evening programme kicks off with the UK premiere of director Adam Marcus’ savvy seasonal shocker Secret Santa. Marcus will be joined onstage by some of the cast and producers. Following this is the much anticipated UK premiere of Tigers Are Not Afraid, an unflinching South of the Border cautionary fable, an audacious mix of Pan’s Labyrinth and Narcos, which firmly announces director Issa López as a rising star of Mexico’s New Wave cinema.
This year’s global celebration of the genre ends on an adrenalin-fuelled high with the European premiere of Neil Mackay’s ultra-violent, action-packed thriller Sixty Minutes to Midnight. Actor Arnold Sydney Junior and producer Frank Leraci will be in Glasgow to introduce the movie.
Alan Jones, FrightFest co-director, said today: “With our bold choices and the quality of programming, FrightFest is once again positioned to deliver at our beloved second home in Glasgow. It’s no surprise to us that the genre has just had its biggest and most successful year. If you’ve ever attended one of our events, you’ll know exactly why. For FrightFest will always create a communal space where the pure enjoyment of the occasion is paramount and a vital shared experience. Welcome to our Pleasure Dome, FrightFest- Glasgow-style”.
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UK Premiere of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs to Open Glasgow Film Festival 2018
Glasgow Film Festival 2018 will open on February 21 with the UK premiere of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. The animated adventure Isle of Dogs tells the story of Atari Kobayashi, 12-year-old ward to corrupt Mayor Kobayashi. When, by Executive Decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to a vast garbage-dump, Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies to Trash Island in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly-found mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture.
The all-star voice cast includes Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Kunichi Nomura, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Akira Ito, Greta Gerwig, Akira Takayama, Frances McDormand, F. Murray Abraham, Courtney B. Vance, Yojiro Noda, Fisher Stevens, Mari Natsuki, Nijiro Murakami, Yoko Ono, Harvey Keitel and Frank Wood.
Allan Hunter, Festival Co-director said: “Wes Anderson is one of the most imaginative, beguiling filmmakers working in world cinema and we are thrilled to open GFF 2018 with the UK premiere of his brand new film. Four years ago we opened the Festival by booking into The Grand Budapest Hotel. This year we invite audiences to set sail for the Isle Of Dogs. It will be a night to remember and the best possible start to a great Festival.”
Fox Searchlight Pictures will release Isle of Dogs in UK cinemas on March 30, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt__kig8PVU
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Glasgow Short Film Festival Announces Selection For 2012 International And Scottish Competitions
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Jimmy by Martin Smith[/caption]Glasgow Short Film Festival announced the selection for the 2012 competitions. Sixty-nine films will screen across International and Scottish competitions, including five Scottish films which have been selected for both competitions. The selection includes seven World Premieres, one International Premiere, three European Premieres, twenty-one UK Premieres and twenty Scottish Premieres.
Amongst the selected films are two films by Scottish musicians: John Maclean (The Beta Band) presents Pitch Black Heist, featuring Michael Fassbender, and Douglas Hart (The Jesus & Mary Chain) presents his fiction debut Long Distance Information, featuring Peter Mullan. Anarchic American animator Bill Plympton presents Guard Dog Global Jam, an extraordinary remake of his 2005 film Guard Dog, for which he enlisted seventy animators via the internet, each recreating a shot in their own style.
Audience favourite and multi-award winning Las Palmas, by Swedish filmmaker Johannes Nyholm, features a toddler interacting with puppets to hilarious effect. Belgian filmmaker Rachel Lang presents the UK Premiere of her film White Turnips Make It Hard To Sleep, which recently won the prestigious Ingmar Bergman Award at Uppsala Short Film Festival. Kirkcaldy Man, Julian Schwanitz’s haunting documentary in search of champion darts player Jocky Wilson, makes its debut UK screening.
Each competition will be judged by an international jury of filmmakers, curators and writers, who will select the film they consider the most innovative and outstanding work in each programme. Audiences attending competition programmes will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite to win the Audience Award in each competition.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
15 Summers Later
Scottish Premiere / Perdo Collantes / Spain / 2011 / 5 min / Fiction663114
UK Premiere / Isamu Hirabayashi / Japan / 2011 / 8 min / Animation
910712 Heejung
UK Premiere / Yoo Won-Sang / South Korea / 2010 / 17 min / Fiction
Asylum
Joern Utkilen / UK / 2010 / 17 min / Fiction
Birth of a Nation
UK Premiere / Daya Cahen / Netherlands / 2010 / 10 min / Experimental
Come To Harm
Scottish Premiere / Börkur Sigþórsson / Iceland / 2011 / 18 min / Fiction
Decapoda Shock
Scottish Premiere / Javier Chillon / Spain / 2011 / 9 min / Fiction
The Factory (A Fábrica)
UK Premiere / Aly Muritiba / Brazil / 2011 / 15 min / Fiction
Fini
Scottish Premiere / Jacob Secher Schulsinger / Denmark / 2010 / 29 min / Documentary
Ghosts (Fantasmas)
UK Premiere / André Novais Oliveira / Brazil / 2010 / 11 min / Experimental
Goodbye Mandima (Kwa Heri Mandima)
UK Premiere / Robert-Jan Lacombe / Switzerland / 2010 / 11 min / Documentary
Green Crayons
Scottish Premiere / Kazik Radwanski / Canada / 2010 / 10 min / Fiction
Guard Dog Global Jam
Scottish Premiere / Bill Plympton / USA / 2011 / 6 min / Animation
Huma, Bird of Fortune (Homayeh Saadat)
UK Premiere / Alireza Rofougaran / Iran / 2010 / 4 min / Documentary
I’m Not The Enemy
UK Premiere / Bjørn Melhus / Germany / 2011 / 13 min / Experimental
I’m So Happy (Soy tan feliz)
UK Premiere / Vladimir Duran / Argentina/Colombia / 2011 / 14 min / Fiction
Jimmy
Martin Smith / UK / 2011 / 12 min / Documentary
Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys
UK Premiere / Jens Assur / Sweden / 2011 / 24 min / Fiction
Kin
UK Premiere / L’Atelier Collectif / Belgium / 2010 / 11 min / Animation
Las Palmas
Scottish Premiere / Johannes Nyholm / Sweden / 2011 / 13 min / Fiction
Long Distance Information
Scottish Premiere / Douglas Hart / UK / 2011 / 8 min / Fiction
The Making of Longbird
Scottish Premiere / Will Anderson / UK / 2011 / 15 min / Animation
Maria
European Premiere / Erik Bostedt / UK / 2011 / 15 min / Fiction
Now Follows (Nun Sehen Sie Folgendes)
Scottish Premiere / Erik Schmitt & Stephan Müller / Germany / 2010 / 5 min / Fiction
A Piece of Summer (Kawalek Lata)
Scottish Premiere / Marta Minorowicz / Poland / 2010 / 25 min
Pioneer
Scottish Premiere / David Lowery / USA / 2011 / 16 min / Fiction
Possessed
UK Premiere / Fred Worden / USA / 2010 / 9 min / Experimental
Power!
UK Premiere / Christina Ebelt & Mischa Leinkauf / Germany / 2010 / 28 min / Fiction
Proposal
International Premiere / Chris King / USA / 2011 / 16 min / Fiction
Repressed (Förträngd)
Scottish Premiere / Jimmy Olsson / Sweden / 2010 / 15 min / Fiction
River Rites
UK Premiere / Ben Russell / USA/Suriname / 2011 / 11 min / Experimental
Sergeant (Narednik)
UK Premiere / Nikola Ljuca / Serbia / 2011 / 21 min / Fiction
Shirin
World Premiere / Stephen Fingleton / UK / 2011 / 13 min / Fiction
Silent River (Apele Tac)
Scottish Premiere / Anca Miruna Lazarescu / Germany/Romania / 2011 / 30 min / Fiction
The Stranges Ones (Deux Inconnus)
Scottish Premiere / Lauren Wolkenstein & Christopher Radcliff / France / 2011 / 15 min / Fiction
Three Walls
UK Premiere / Zaheed Mawani / Canada / 2011 / 26 min / Documentary
Tidy Up
European Premiere / Satsuki Okawa / Japan/USA / 2011 / 15 min / Fiction
To Make a Prairie
UK Premiere / James Nares / USA / 2010 / 13 min / Experimental
Tumult
Johnny Barrington / UK / 2011 / 13 min / Fiction
We, the Masses
UK Premiere / Eoghan Kidney / Ireland / 2011 / 13 min / Animation
Where Are They Now?
Joanna Coates / UK / 2011 / 14 min / Fiction
White Turnips Make it Hard to Sleep (Les Navets Blancs Empêchent de Dormir)
UK Premiere / Rachel Lang / France/Belgium / 2011 / 27 min / Fiction
The Wind is Blowing On My Street (Dar Kouche Baad Miayad)
Scottish Premiere / Saba Riazi / Iran / 2010 / 15 min / Fiction
SCOTTISH COMPETITION
Asexual Healing
European Premiere / Martha Appelt / UK / 2010 / 15 min / Fiction
Asylum
Joern Utkilen / UK / 2010 / 17 min / Fiction
Bird
World Premiere / Alasdair Bayne / UK / 2011 / 13 min / Fiction
A Cuillin Rising
Catriona MacInnes / UK / 2011 / 20 min / Fiction
Dogged
Scottish Premiere / Jo Shaw / UK / 2011 / 9 min / Experimental
Egg & Fag
Rose Hendry / UK / 2011 / 2 min / Experimental
Étude
Ania Hazel Leszczynska / UK / 2011 / 4 min / Animation
The Fisherman’s Daughter
Tom Chick / UK / 2011 / 7 min / Fiction
Five, Six, Seven, Eight!
World Premiere / Felipe Bustos Sierra / UK / 2012 / 10 min / Fiction
Fixing Luka
Jessica Ashman / UK / 2011 / 11 min / Animation
The Golden Bird
Cat Bruce / UK / 2011 / 12 min / Animation
Guilt
UK Premiere / Hákon Pálsson / UK / 2011 / 14 min / Fiction
James Dean
Lucy Asten Elliott / UK / 2011 / 8 min / Fiction
Jimmy
Martin Smith / UK / 2011 / 12 min / Documentary
Joking Apart
World Premiere / Ronald Forbes / UK / 2011 / 5 min / Experimental
Kirkcaldy Man
UK Premiere / Julian Schwanitz / UK / 2011 / 18 min / Documentary
The Lady with the Lamp
World Premiere / Duncan Cowles / UK / 2011 / 4 min / Documentary
Long Distance Information
Scottish Premiere / Douglas Hart / UK / 2011 / 8 min / Fiction
The Making of Longbird
Scottish Premiere / Will Anderson / UK / 2011 / 15 min / Animation
Night Shift
Ruth Reid / UK / 2011 / 9 min / Documentary
No More Shall We Part
Scottish Premiere / Shaun Hughes / UK / 2011 / 25 min / Fiction
The Perfect Fit
Tali Yankelevich / UK / 2011 / 9 min / Documentary
Philippa & Nancy
World Premiere / Paul White, Ciara Barry, Claire McInnes & Nora Smyth / UK / 2011 / 8 min / Fiction
The Phone Box
Ian Robertson / UK / 2011 / 5 min / Fiction
Pitch Black Heist
Scottish Premiere / John Maclean / UK / 2011 / 13 min / Fiction
Pouncer
Scottish Premiere / Louis Paxton / UK / 2011 / 15 min / Fiction
The Rule of Thumb
Gregor Johnstone / UK / 2011 / 18 min / Fiction
Saved
Stuart Elliott / UK / 2011 / 11 min / Fiction
Three-Legged Horses
World Premiere / Felipe Bustos Sierra / UK / 2011 / 20 min / Fiction
Tumult
Johnny Barrington / UK / 2011 / 13 min / Fiction
Wind Over Lake
Jeorge Elkin / UK / 2010 / 34 min / Fiction
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Glasgow Film Festival returns February 17–27, 2011
Potiche The Glasgow Film Festival returns for it’s seventh year to the city of Glasgow, Scotland, from February, 17–27, 2011. The Festival will open on Thursday 17 February with the UK gala premiere of François Ozon’s crowd-pleasing comedy Potiche starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. Set in small-town France in the 1970s, the film is pure delight, combining hilarious farce with withering social commentary. Catherine Deneuve has one of the best roles of her recent career as a trophy wife in a period of rampant chauvinism who throws off the shackles of domestic servitude to assert her independence.