Glasgow Film Festival 2015 Announces Programme
by Amanda Farley
The 11th Glasgow Film Festival has arrived and from the 18th of February until the 1st March the city will come to life with over 174 screenings and special events.
Kicking off with the European premiere of Noah Baumbach’s new film While We’re Young starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts and Adam Driver, the carefully selected line up offers something for everyone and includes 11 world and 10 European premieres.
Among the films to be shown is the UK premiere of Still Alice, which landed Julianne Moore an Oscar-nomination, as well as Alan Rickman’s second feature A Little Chaos.
Other highlights at the festival are Rosewater staring Gael Garcia Bernal and marking Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, David Robert Mitchell’s new teen horror It Follows, and The Salt of the Earth a new documentary by Wim Wenders.
This is also the first year that there will be an Audience Award chosen from a pre-selected shortlist of 10 films, and also the first time the festival has introduced a new strand for family films.
Force Majeure, winner of the jury prize in Cannes, will then close the festival in style with a gala. This year’s festival is very much about celebrating Glasgow’s long running cinematic love affair. From the beginning of the 20th century there were more picture houses in Glasgow than in any city outside of America. To honour the city’s rich cinema-going heritage there will be an extensive exhibition at the Mitchell Library.
If there is one thing that sets the Glasgow Film Festival apart from any other, it’s the role the city’s architecture plays in shaping of the festival. Renowned for it special pop-up screenings and one off experiences, this year offers some unique treats including the first time that films will be screened at the Mackintosh Queen’s Cross church. Where audiences can see the Scottish premiere of Kim Longinotto’s documentary Love is All, about the history of love in the movies or for the more adventurous there is a late night screening of Ted Kotcheff’s deeply unsettling Wake in Fright, which Nick Cave describes as ‘the best and most terrifying film about Australia’.
Drygate brewery will also be used as a venue for a number of fun events including a 1970s roller disco for a special screening of Dazed and Confused. For the wannabe detective there is a murder mystery party at Trades Hall to accompany a screening of Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express, starring Ingrid Bergman.
Other highlights include the Internet Cat Video Festival hosted by the Gallery of Modern Art and a musical tribute to silent movie legend Buster Keaton at the Old Fruitmarket by improv comedy legend Paul Merton and Pianist Neil Brand.
With 12 days of movie magic happening across 20 venues there is lots to entice, entertain and enchant.
