Glasgow’s fourteenth annual celebration of film to showcase fresh new cinema from Ireland and the Baltics
Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi comes to town with electronic pioneers Wrangler for a celebration of the greatest films never made in The Unfilmables
2017 Scottish Album of the Year Award winners Sacred Paws perform live soundtrack to Margaret Salmon’s explosive speedway documentary Mm
The festival’s legendary special event screenings are back, turning top Glasgow club SWG into a massive 80s v 90s school disco with screenings of high school classics Gregory’s Girl and Clueless
Bringing Hollywood’s broodiest Rebel Heroes back to the big screen in a free retrospective of classics starring James Dean, Sidney Poitier and more.
The boldest and most original filmmaking talent will be highlighted in Ireland: The Near Shore. With a strong focus on emerging female directors, the strand will host the Scottish premiere of Nora Twomey’s hotly anticipated animated feature The Breadwinner, about a headstrong young girl living in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and the UK premiere of music video director Aoife McArdle’s debut film, the striking coming-of-age tale Kissing Candice. Other highlights include Frank Berry’s award-winning look at teenage life behind bars Michael Inside and Ellen Page in the Scottish premiere of David Freyne’s new twist on the zombie movie The Cured.
The Pure Baltic strand will host the UK premieres of Jaak Kilmi’s The Dissidents, an upbeat comedy about three teenage Estonian boys who escape to Sweden in the 1980’s, Aik Karapetian’s Latvian psychological thriller Firstborn and Egle Vertelyte’s Miracle, a dryly funny political critique of post-Communism Lithuania.
The festival’s much-loved morning matinees return with a season dedicated to Hollywood’s broodiest anti-heroes. Rebel Heroes, from a doomed James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause to Sidney Poitier breaking free from the chain gang in The Defiant Ones, via Steve McQueen tearing up the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt and Elvis Presley shaking up his cellblock in Jailhouse Rock, will be returning to the big screen in these free events that are the perfect way to kick start a day at the festival. The full programme for Glasgow Film Festival 2018 is announced on 24th January. Tickets go on sale to GFF members and GFT CineCard holders from 12noon on 25 January and then on general sale from 10am on 29 January.
The Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi (Under The Skin and Jackie original soundtracks), video artist Francesca Levi and electronic pioneers Wrangler (featuring ex-Cabaret Voltaire Stephen Mallinder) perform live in the Scottish premiere of The Unfilmables – a celebration of music, imagination and the greatest movies never made. Sisters Mica and Francesca collaborate on The Colour of Chips, a re-imagining of Sergei Parajanov’s most famous work, The Colour of Pomegranates, which transports the story from Armenia to the north of England, resulting in a lost British-classic-that-never-was.
Wrangler also take cinema to the next level with The Tourist – based upon Claire Noto’s script from the 1970s, long-regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi films never to make it to the big screen, despite the best efforts of Franc Roddam and Francis Ford Coppola. Wrangler have resurrected the script and, along with filmmaker Tash Tung and live visual manipulator Daniel Conway, bring it back to life in provocative and inventive fashion.
2017 Scottish Album of the Year winners Sacred Paws make their soundtracking debut on Glasgow-based artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon’s Mm. Shot on location on 35mm film with the all-male speedway motorcycle team the Berwick Bandits, Mm is an exploration of language, masculinity and racing incorporating the explosive sounds of speedway alongside live music and voice from the post-punk band. To coincide with event, co-produced by Tramway and LUX Scotland, an exhibition of Margaret Salmon’s acclaimed work will run in Tramway’s main gallery from 16 February to 18 March 2018.
Glasgow Film Festival 2018 will also see the return of the hugely popular special event screenings. Previous years have seen audiences escorted by vampire motorcycle cavalcade to a theme park showing of Lost Boys and donning orange jumpsuits to experience cult action movie Con Air in an aircraft hanger outside the city.
For 2018, GFF will turn top club venue SWG3 into the ultimate 80s v 90s school disco. Audiences can iron their best prom dress or dust off that old football kit and choose to watch one of the greatest high school movies of all time – either the much-loved Scottish gem Gregory’s Girl or Alicia Silverstone in the endlessly quotable Clueless. Post-film, both sides will come together for a massive school disco-themed party with top DJs spinning favourite dance floor fillers and heartbreakers from across the decades. More special events will be announced along with the full festival programme on 24th January.
