The Glasgow Film Festival kicks of this week. The Festival was first established in 2005 as a small, local festival, but has since grown into one of the UK's most prestigious film events. which showcases the best new and classic films from around the world, and is now regarded as a key event in promoting the city as a major cultural destination.
The festival has a diverse program, featuring a mix of premieres, retrospectives, special events, and industry panels and is now able to attract high-profile guests, including actors, directors, and producers. It aims to screen films ranging from indie gems to blockbuster hits.
Now a truly International film festival Glasgow will screen films from U.S.A, New Zealand, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Finland, Canada amongst others and of course Scotland.
What to look out for
Films from Scotland:
The Festival will open with a UK premiere of Adura Onashile’s film Girl a hometown movie set in Glasgow. The film was already shown at this year's iconic Sundance Film Festival in February
The film tells the story of Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and her 11-year-old daughter Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu) outsiders trying to build a new life in a city where everything feels strange and hostile. Traumatised by what she has endured, Grace just wants to keep her daughter safe from harm, while Ama is taught to be suspicious of everyone. When Ama makes friends with classmate Fiona (Liana Turner), it only adds to Grace’s anxiety that their special bond is under threat.
Another film to look out for is The Origin from Director Andrew Cumming and filmed during the COVID lockdowns in the Scottish Highlands. The film is a unique attempt at a horror movie set in prehistoric times, 45,000 years ago and creates a vivid, sensory experience, with a non-existent language.
Other Scottish films to look out for:
Details - this will be a world premiere screening
Directed by James Price this film is described as "a big-hearted drama saluting the power of redemption set on the streets of Dundee.
A Gloria Grahame Retrospective
The Festival will also carry a retrospective of the Academy Award-winning actress Gloria Grahame celebrating with select viewings of her work spanning the 1950s and the Golden age of Hollywood.
Gloria Grahame was of course half Scottish - her mother being Jeanne McDougall, a British stage actress and acting teacher who used the stage name Jean Grahame and was supposedly descended from Scottish Hebridean Kings.
She was directed by some of the Silver Screen's greatest Directors, Vincente Minnelli and Fritz Lang and starred alongside actors such as Kirk Douglas, Humphrey Bogart and Harry Belafonte. Her film retrospective at this year's festival will include:
The Bad and the Beautiful - Vincente Minnelli (1952), In A lonely Place - Nicholas Ray (1950) The Big Heat - Fritz Lang (1953), Human Desire - Fritz Lang (1954), Odds Against Tomorrow - Robert Wise (1959).