The Glasgow Film Festival this year turns 20 years old, and is celebrating in style with a sparkling lineup that includes 69 UK premieres, 11 world and international premieres, and 15 Scottish premieres.
Screenings will take place across the city from 28 February to 10 March, with romantic crime thriller Love Lies Bleeding getting things off to a muscular start. In writer/director Rose Glass’ wildly ambitious follow-up to Saint Maud, gym owner Lou (Kristen Stewart) falls hard for bodybuilder Jackie (Katy M. O’Brian), who’s heading to glittering Las Vegas to pursue her dream but is instead pulled into a world of darkness. Closing the festival, meanwhile, is the world premiere of Janey, a frank, affecting, and so-funny-it-hurts documentary about Glasgow comedian Janey Godley, who embarked on her Not Dead Yet tour after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Here are eight more films playing at GFF that we’re especially excited to see:
The Dead Don’t Hurt
Viggo Mortensen writes, directs, and stars in this western set in Nevada as the Civil War looms. Quietly revolutionary, it focuses on two immigrants who find love in dangerous times, as Mortensen’s Holger, a Dane, connects with Vicky Krieps’ fiercely independent French-Canadian, Vivienne Le Coudy. Mortensen is also the subject of an in-conversation session at the festival.
Tummy Monster
The GFF naturally likes to celebrate Scottish talent, and what a talent it’s showcasing in Glasgow-based Scottish-Irish director Ciaran Lyons. This strikingly original feature debut is set entirely in the studio of tattoo artist Tales (Lorn Macdonald), who enters into a bizarre and unnerving battle of wills with an American music star (Orlando Norman) who refuses to pose for a selfie after being inked.
Bill Douglas – My Best Friend
The eponymous filmmaker is one of Scotland’s greatest, his autobiographical trilogy (My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home, all made in the 70s) a thing of wonder. In this riveting documentary, Douglas’ lifelong companion and collaborator Peter Jewell reflects on their friendship and, of course, the films.
Sleep
This South Korean thriller is guaranteed to pin your eyes open. Newlyweds Hyeon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) find a strain is put on their marriage by Hyeon-Soo’s sleepwalking. Things only get worse from there, his nighttime wandering bringing real danger into their lives. Good luck sleeping after this one.
Jericho Ridge
Set in America but shot in Kosovo with actors you’ll recognize from Brit TV, this lean, mean siege movie sees county sheriff Tabby (Nikki Amuka-Bird) alone at the police station as a gun-toting posse descend. Writer/director Will Gilbey is clearly a fan of John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13. Aren’t we all?
Mom
As ever, the GFF plays host to FrightFest for a long weekend of incessant terror – 11 fear flicks are playing, if you can steel your courage. Mom is a must-see, starring Emily Hampshire (Stevie on Schitt’s Creek) as a new mom who threatens to be swallowed whole by postnatal depression and past trauma.
Bleeding Love
Twelve hours after she overdoses, a father (Ewan McGregor) takes his estranged daughter (Clara McGregor) on a road trip. Will he steer her towards safety? Might they bond? And just who will they meet on this bumpy journey? Scottish icon McGregor acts alongside the eldest of his five children in this personal drama.
Down Terrace
It all started here for Ben Wheatley – a ragtag crime thriller made on a handheld camera for £6000. The director, who went on to make Kill List, Sightseers and Meg 2: The Trench, is in town to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his dynamic debut – the screening will be followed by a Q&A.
Glasgow Film Festival runs from 28 February to 10 March.
For more upcoming movies, here's our list of 2024 movie release dates.
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