The programme for the Glasgow Film Festival has been announced today with 250 screenings taking over the city from March 1-12
This year GFF will host 70 UK premieres, 6 World premieres, 16 European and 6 Scottish premieres making it one of the UK’s biggest film festivals.
UK Premieres at Glasgow Film Festival
The 19th edition of the festival will open with Adura Onashile’s feature debut Girl. A story of a traumatised mother and daughter trying to reconcile with the past while trusting in the future. Onashile’s short film Expensive shit previously won the audience and critics award at the Glasgow International Film Festival.
We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor will close the festival with the UK Premiere of Polite Society. A highlight of 2023 Sundance Film Festival Polite Society merges Bollywood, British comedy and martial arts in Manzoor’s bombastic debut.
UK premieres include chilling Irish drama, God’s Creatures, in which a mother lies to protect her son from sexual assault allegations, dividing her small community. BIFA winner Emily Watson and Oscar nominee Paul Mescal star.
Also making its UK debut is Nicolas Cage’s new western Butcher’s Crossing and the story of the rise and fall of a major tech company in Director Matthew Johnson’s Blackberry starring Glen Howerton and Jay Baruchel.
Scottish talent takes centre stage with Springburn native James Price’s Dog Days and Scottish film archiver Jo Reid’s exploration into using cycling to fuel female emancipation in The Freedom Machine.
Co-Directors
This year marks Allan Hunter’s last festival as Co-Director, speaking in a press release following the programmes announcement he said:
“It is always a thrill to raise the curtain on the GFF programme. The string of hand-picked gems for 2023 stretches from glorious new work by home grown talent to the very best that world cinema has to offer.”
Fellow Co-Director Allison Gardiner also spoke about some of the exciting films that audiences can catch this year:
“We can’t wait for UK audiences to be the first to see films such as My Name is Alfred Hitchcock… Sanctuary and some fabulous Icelandic films, Driving Mum, A Letter from Helga and Band. Whilst I will sorely miss my co-director Allan as this is his last year, I think he would agree that this programme is a fabulous testament to the power of cinema.”
What else is on offer?
Viewers will also have the chance to vote for their favourite films as part of the audience award. Included in the shortlist is Riceboy Sleeps by actor and filmmaker Anthony Shim about a Korean single mother trying to raise her son in 1990s suburban Canada. Also screening is Punch, following an alcoholic father of a young New Zealand boxer who is developing a friendship with a gay Māori teen, starring Tim Roth.
Free morning retrospectives are back by popular demand. The ‘In the driving Seat’ retrospective boasts a selection including Bonnie and Clyde, It Happened One Night, The Sugarland Express, Thelma & Louise and Roman Holiday.
Fright Fest will also be making a return to the festival for three days with the baffling horror film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey making its much anticipated UK debut. Yes, it’s as weird and wonderful as it sounds.
For more information on the what Glasgow Film Festival has to offer visit their website.
Tickets for the full GFF23 programme go on sale at 12pm on Monday 30 January from GFT Box Office, online at http://www.glasgowfilm.org/festival or by telephone: 0141 332 6535
Featured Image Credit: Eoin Carey/ GFF23
Film and Tv Editor at Brig Newspaper. Currently studying Journalism and English at the University of Stirling
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