Richard Gere confirmed to attend as GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL ‘GERES’ Up for 12th Programme

Richard Gere leads the special guests for one of the biggest programmes the Festival has seen – 308 separate events, 174 films, and 60 UK premieres

Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind

Glasgow Film Festival today announced their twelfth annual programme: an exciting, innovative, audience-focused festival packed with UK, European and World premieres, and the festival’s trademark pop-up cinema events making new use of some of the city’s most unusual venues. As previously announced, GFF16, which runs from 17-28 February 2016 and is supported by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, EventScotland, Creative Scotland and BFI, will open with the UK Premiere of Hail, Caesar! by Ethan & Joel Coen, and close with the UK Premiere of Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Oscar-nominated Anomalisa. With 308 separate events and screenings and 174 films, this is one of the largest programmes the festival has fielded.

GFF is delighted to welcome a number of very special guests, including Richard Gere, supporting the UK premiere of his new film Time Out Of Mind, in which he plays a homeless man, possibly suffering from mental illness, adrift in New York. Natalie Dormer, best known for Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games, walks the red carpet for the UK premiere of The Forest; director Ben Wheatley will also be in attendance for the Scottish premiere of High-Rise, the high-profile adaptation of JG Ballard’s dystopian novel starring Tom Hiddleston and Sienna Miller.

Veteran arthouse director Peter Greenaway and über-stuntman Vic Armstrong will also be taking part in In Person events discussing their careers. Full list of confirmed guests below; further guest announcements will be made closer to the festival.

Other major UK premieres this year include Demolition, the new film from Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild), starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts, Louder Than Bombs, the Cannes Palme d’Or nominee directed by Joachim Trier and starring Gabriel Byrne and Jesse Eisenberg, Sing Street, the new Dublin-set musical by Once writer/director John Carney, the brilliant, Oscar-nominated Mustang, Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle’s labour-of-love Miles Davis film, and the new Disney animation Zootropolis, created by the minds behind Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled.

The programme of high-profile new films also includes Cannes Palme d’Or winner Dheepan, Norway’s Oscar entry, action-thriller The Wave, Miguel Gomes’ utterly majestic trilogy Arabian Nights, multi-award-winning indie James White, Truth, Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett’s tense take on the 60 Minutes George W Bush scandal, and Green Room, Jeremy Saulnier’s blistering follow-up to Blue Ruin, starring Sir Patrick Stewart playing against type as the leader of a neo-Nazi group. GFF is also thrilled to host the world premiere of Hamish, a documentary about Scottish poet, songwriter and intellectual Hamish Henderson. 

Glasgow Film Festival is renowned for its special events and ‘total film’ experiences, where classic films are reinterpreted in unique and iconic settings, and this year’s programme brings a number of films celebrating significant anniversaries to life off the screen in some legendary Glasgow venues – in fact, it’s possible to have a different film experience in a different, iconic venue every night of the festival. While the all-action screenings of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Silence of the Lambs at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum sold out within days of being announced in December, the festival still has some aces up its sleeve, with a different and unusual experience possible every single night of the festival. Teen romantics of all ages might like to recreate the vibrant mid-nineties glamour of the Capulet masked ball from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (complete with fishtank and cocktails served in poison vials) in city-centre mansion house Trades Hall; wannabe newshounds can celebrate the fortieth anniversary of biting media satire Network in BBC Scotland’s hub at Pacific Quay, after hours. Thelma & Louise is 25 years old this year, and in celebration of those gals GFF invites you to travel to Glasgow’s own Deep South for a pre-screening line-dancing session at the Grand Ole Opry, Europe’s largest Country & Western Saloon. Or why not abandon all control and be hustled aboard the GFF prison bus, where you’ll be handed a regulation orange jumpsuit, handcuffed, and taken to a top-secret location for a very special screening of Con Air…?

Further highlights from the programme, along with comment from directors and funders, can be found below. Tickets for the main festival programme are on sale from 10am on Monday 25 January. The full brochure will be available online from 19.15 on Wednesday 20 January at www.glasgowfilm.org/festival. Further guests attending will be announced nearer to the festival date.

IN MEMORIAM
The festival programme had been finalised well before the sad news of David Bowie’s death had been announced; by coincidence festival-goers have a number of chances to pay their respects to the man for whom the Sound & Vision programme strand was named. D A Pennebaker’s concert film of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (regularly named as one of the best live music films ever made) screens late night on Saturday 20 February, preceded by the documentary short Let’s Dance: Bowie Down Under, which follows the Thin White Duke in the early 1980s. GFF will also be using the Glasgow Planetarium for the first time, as you shoot out to space for a fortieth anniversary screening of The Man Who Fell To Earth (Tue 23 Feb), preceded by a guided tour through the galaxy and experimental Argentinean short film Contraluz, which was designed specially for the Planetarium’s 360° screen. A fittingly beautiful, outlandish and out-of-this-world salute to Bowie’s definitive film role as visiting alien Thomas Jerome Newton.

Allan Hunter, Glasgow Film Festival Co-Director, said: ‘The 2016 Glasgow Film Festival programme is bursting with must-see movies and events. I’m excited to introduce audiences to real gems like Pablo Trapero’s gripping crime drama The Clan in our Argentine focus, Zhang Yang’s breathtaking Tibetan film Paths Of The Soul, and a cracking line-up of Audience Award contenders including the unforgettable, Oscar-nominated Mustang. Where else would you want to be in February?’

Allison Gardner, Glasgow Film Festival Co-Director, said: ‘I’m really delighted with this year’s programme. We’ve got some exceptional premieres in our Gala strand, a great and thoroughly original line up of documentaries in Stranger Than Fiction, and a really charming, child-friendly Modern Families programme headlined by the UK premiere of Disney’s Zootropolis. The festival keeps moving forward, with new developments like our Industry Focus conference, whilst also maintaining our roots as an audience-focused festival where everyone can come together to share a love of cinema. And we’ve been around for a few years now, so look out for some extra-special movie anniversaries in the programme.’

OPENING GALA: Hail, Caesar! **UK PREMIERE**
Nobody loves old Hollywood quite like Joel and Ethan Coen. Hail, Caesar! is their freewheeling, all-star comic extravaganza set during the latter days of the studio system. Josh Brolin is a studio fixer, George Clooney is kidnapped megastar Baird Whitlock, taken in costume from the set of his new film Hail, Caesar!, Scarlett Johansson is a starlet swimming sensation, Tilda Swinton plays twin gossip columnists and Channing Tatum is a Gene Kelly-esque song-and-dance man in a sailor suit. The Coens are back, in style, with an irresistibly eclectic cast featuring more stars than the heavens. Who could want a more festive start to a festival? Wednesday 18 February (Doors 18.00 for 19.00 sold out; second screening 22.00) | repeated Thursday 19 February (15.30) | GFT

CLOSING GALA: Anomalisa **UK PREMIERE**
This latest mesmerising masterwork from the beautiful mind of Charlie Kaufman is a one-of-a-kind romance, entirely played out in stop motion animation. Michael Stone, voiced by David Thewlis, is a customer services guru suffering near-terminal ennui – until he meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animation and with the Grand Special Jury Prize from Venice Film Festival under its belt, Anomalisa offers a plaintive exploration of all the little things that make us human. It is funny, charming, surprisingly erotic, deeply moving and completely, wonderfully irresistible. Sunday 28 February (Doors 19.15 for 20.00) | GFT | Sold out

CONFIRMED GUESTS Further guests will be announced in the run-up to the festival.
• Richard Gere: the star of Pretty Woman and An Officer and a Gentleman comes to Glasgow to support the UK premiere of Time Out of Mind, a beautifully-shot, hugely affecting film directed by Oren Moverman and co-starring Steve Buscemi, Jena Malone and Ben Vereen, in which Gere gives an astonishing, pared-back performance as a homeless man down and out in New York.

• Natalie Dormer, best known as Margaery Tyrell in Games of Thrones and Cressida in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, walks the red carpet for the UK premiere of Japan-set horror The Forest, as a FrightFest preview.

• Ben Wheatley The director formerly known as British cinema’s enfant terrible has lost none of his edge with his pull-no-punches adaptation of JG Ballard’s High-Rise. 

• Peter Greenaway: the veteran director presents his new film Eisenstein in Guanajuato, and takes part in an In Conversation retropective of his career.

• Vic Armstrong: the legendary stunt man (Indiana Jones and Superman) joins us to look back at his 50 year career, as well as introducing our all-action screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

• Hannah Murray (Game of Thrones, Skins) appears to support Bridgend, a thoughtful look at the suicide ‘epidemic’ experienced by the small Welsh town in the mid 2000s. She is joined by fellow cast members Josh O’Connor (Ripper Street, Peaky Blinders) and Steven Waddington (The Imitation Game, Sleepy Hollow) and director Jeppe Rønde.

• Danny Fields, the hugely influential music journalist, record exec and manager of The Stooges & The Ramones, in conversation following the Scottish premiere of the film about his life, Danny Says. 

• Director Michael Caton-Jones (The Jackal, This Boy’s Life) and actor Letitia Wright (Cucumber and Banana) in support of the UK premiere of Urban Hymn.

• Joachim Trier comes to the festival to support the UK premiere of his first English language feature, the hotly-tipped Louder Than Bombs.

• Nerdvana event The Road to Civil War features the UK premiere of Marvel Renaissance, a documentary tracing how the comic book house came to dominate contemporary cinema, followed by directors Phillipe Guedj and Philippe Roure in conversation with comic book writer Mark Millar, who created Kick-Ass and is the brains behind the upcoming Marvel film Captain America: Civil War. We can’t promise spoilers, but look out for a lot of behind-the-scenes Marvel insight. 

• Lucile Hadžihalilović: the French director – the first woman to win the Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival, and co-writer of Enter The Void – presents her new film Évolution.

• Better known as an actor, Ruth Platt presents her directorial debut The Lesson, a dark, bloody and shocking coming-of age tale. 

• Artist filmmaker Miranda Pennell, supporting her film The Host, a personal search through corporate colonialism. 

SPECIAL EVENTS
GFF is renowned for pop-up cinema: atmospheric one-off ‘total cinema’ experiences in some of the city’s best-loved venues. Alongside our already sold-out screenings of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Silence of the Lambs at Kelvingrove Museum, a number of talks and live music events round off an exciting and utterly original programme:

• Our screening of Con Air is held in a top-secret location: you’ll be put through your convict paces: collected at GFT, assigned a uniform, handcuffed to your partner, and loaded onto the prison bus! (Thu 18 Feb)

• Journey to Glasgow’s Deep South to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Ridley Scott’s classic Thelma & Louise at Europe’s largest Country & Western saloon, The Grand Ole Opry, complete with lasso-work and line-dancing. (Sun 21 Feb)

• An intimate screening of biting media satire Network, which turns 40 this year, in the perfect setting of BBC Scotland’s HQ at Pacific Quay, introduced by BBC Arts Correspondent Pauline McLean. (Mon 22 Feb)

• David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, screened in GFF’s own Chapel of Love, new venue St Luke’s, complete with award-winning Elvis impersonator Danny Allan. (Thu 25 Feb)

• Glasgow based vocalist and composer Ela Orleans will perform a specially-commissioned live score to Lucky Star, a romantic silent melodrama starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, created especially for performance in Mackintosh Queen’s Cross. (Fri 26 Feb)

• Baz Lurhmann’s never-bettered adaptation of Romeo + Juliet is 20 in 2016, and we’re turning city-centre mansion Trades Hall into the Capulet mansion costume ball, complete with fishtanks, angel wings and cocktails in poison vials. Whether you’re wearing Hawaiian shirts, Cuban heels or full drag, fancy dress is mandatory! (Sat 27 Feb)

THE AUDIENCE AWARD
Glasgow Film Festival is delighted to welcome back the Audience Award, for which the GFF audience will be asked to vote on a shortlist of ten films from first or second-time directors chosen by the festival programming team from across the programme. The Award has been created in conjunction with GFF’s Pioneer strand, which celebrates the festival’s reputation for picking great early films from future cinema masters, and is designed to bring greater profile to some of the most exciting new cinema talents in the world. The Audience Award is sponsored by Scottish Power. 

• 16 Years Till Summer (UK, dir. Lou McLoughlan) A best film nominee at the recent BAFTA Scotland awards, this cathartic documentary focuses on Uisdean, who has been released from prison after serving 16 years for killing his friend. **Scottish premiere**

• The Ardennes (Belgium, dir. Robin Pront) This eye-catching debut turns a tale of brotherly conflict into a much darker and bloodier affair. A wintry Antwerp provides the atmospheric setting as inveterate troublemaker Kenny (Kevin Janssens) is released from prison. **UK premiere**

• From Afar (Venezuela/Mexico, dir. Lorenzo Vigas) A striking debut feature which won the Golden Lion at Venice and offers a poised, acutely observed account of the way intimate bonds can be forged from the strangest of circumstances. **Scottish premiere**

• Home Care (Czech Republic/Slovenia, dir. Alena Mihulová) The Czech Republic’s Oscar candidate is a warm-hearted, funny, life-affirming drama about a dedicated nurse and tireless domestic goddess who puts everyone else first. **Scottish premiere**

• Miles Ahead (USA, dir. Don Cheadle) An appropriately unconventional, freewheeling take on the life of jazz legend Miles Davis from actor/director Don Cheadle, who captures Davis’ physical look and swaggering attitude to perfection. Also stars Ewan McGregor. **UK premiere**

• Mustang (Turkey/France/Germany, dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven) This extraordinary, multi-award winning debut, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, depicts the way female sexuality becomes a challenge to a strict society. **UK premiere**

• The Ones Below (UK, dir. David Farr) One couple’s tragedy becomes another couple’s nightmare in this chilling British psychological thriller and impressive cinema debut from playwright and RSC Associate Director David Farr. **Scottish premiere**

• Parabellum (Argentina/Austria/Uruguay, dir. Lukas Valenta Rinner) How do you prepare for the end of the world? In Lukas Valenta Rinner’s coolly-composed first feature, the middle classes head to survival camps in the woods. **Scottish premiere**

• These Daughters of Mine (Poland, dir. Kinga Debska) Winner of the Audience Award at the Gdynia Film Festival, These Daughters Of Mine is a warm-hearted tale of family bonds and sisterly struggles. A tender, bittersweet tale that will strike a chord with every family member. **UK premiere**

• Winter (UK, dir. Heidi Greensmith) In this soulful debut feature, veteran Scots actor Tommy Flanagan picks up one of the best roles of his career as an aging painter battling mental illness and alcoholism. **Scottish premiere**

Retrospective – Dream Teams of the Silver Screen
Every year, Glasgow Film Festival celebrates cinema history with a retrospective strand exploring the work of a star, or a particularly great year for cinema. This year we’re seeing double with a look at great Hollywood teams: double acts whose chemistry scorched the screen over long collaborative partnerships. These films screen at 10.30 every morning of the festival, with completely free entry. 

• The Adventures of Robin Hood, the Oscar-winning adventure yarn that cemented the on-screen chemistry between Olivia De Havilland and Errol Flynn.

• Oscar-winning screwball comedy The Awful Truth, one of three films teaming Cary Grant with the great Irene Dunne.

• The Big Sleep Prepare for an electric charge on screen when Humphrey Bogart crosses paths with the sultry Lauren Bacall.

• Crowd-pleasing, Oscar-winning delight Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

• Film noir thriller Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.

• Oscar-nominated romantic comedy Libeled Lady, starring one of the most perfect on screen couples, Myrna Loy and William Powell.

• Pillow Talk, the Oscar-winning comedy of crossed wires and exasperated misunderstandings between Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

• Swing Time: effortless teamwork meets pure escapism as Fred Astaire sweeps Ginger Rogers off her feet.

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton at the height of their fame.

• Oscar-winning Woman of the Year, which began a twenty-five year partnership between Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

Country focus – Roads to the South: Argentine Cinema
Filmmakers from Luis Puenzo to Lucrecia Martel have helped to make Argentine cinema one of the major players on the world stage, and recent hits like The Secret
In Their Eyes and Wild Tales have achieved critical and commercial success internationally. A special strand for 2016, Roads to the South offers a snapshot of contemporary Argentine cinema, stretching from joyous crowd- pleasers to haunting dramas, heart-warming road movies to chilling true-life crime thrillers

• The Clan (dir. Pablo Trapero) about an ordinary family who kidnap the wealthy, hold them for ransom and kill them in cold blood. **UK premiere**

• Dog Lady (dir. Laura Citarella, Verónica Llinás), an enigmatic portrait of a woman surviving in the wilds outside Buenos Aires, with a pack of dogs and a parrot for company. **Scottish premiere**

• The Fire (dir. Juan Schnitman), a lean, gripping drama that exposes all the tiny cracks in a relationship when a couple find themselves in possession of $100,000 for 24 hours. **Scottish premiere**

• How to Win Enemies (dir. Gabriel Lichtmann) follows Lucas, who finds himself turning detective when a seductive woman relieves him of his life savings. **UK premiere**

• Living Stars (dir. Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat), a joyous documentary in which the good folks of Buenos Aires cast aside their inhibitions and dance as hard as they can in their own homes. **UK premiere**

• Nicola Costantino: The Artefacta (dir. Natalie Cristiani) a beautiful portrait of an enigmatic artist whose tortured love affair with her homeland acts as catalyst for her work. **Scottish premiere**

• The Official Story (dir. Luis Puenzo), a rare chance to see the landmark 1985 Oscar-winning film that began a revolution in Argentine cinema, in a brand-new print only seen so far at Cannes. **UK premiere**

• Parabellum (dir. Lukas Valenta Rinner), a disturbing, provocative debut where the middle classes hide from apocalypse in forest survival camps. **Scottish premiere**

• Paulina (dir. Santiago Mitre) is a promising young lawyer who gives up her studies to teach in a remote village near Paraguay, believing she can make a difference to the lives of her students. **Scottish premiere**

• Road to La Paz (dir. Francisco Varone), a road movie following a thirty-something drifter and an elderly, devout Muslim travelling two thousand miles to Bolivia. **UK premiere**

UK PREMIERES
60 of this year’s films are UK premieres, including:

• Zootropolis Disney’s 55th feature-length animation is set in a mammal metropolis, where a rookie rabbit cop has to team up with a wily fox con-artist to solve a mystery. 

• Time Out of Mind, a soulful account of one man’s life on the streets of New York City featuring a poignant, career-best performance from Richard Gere. 

• Demolition, the latest film from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

• The Forest, in which Natalie Dormer battles malevolent spirits in a Japanese forest, as part of FrightFest

• Hyena Road, directed by Due South favourite Paul Gross, focusing on Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, capturing the chaos and complexity of modern warfare.

• Disorder Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger star in a tense, beautifully-paced thriller about a soldier with PTSD, directed by Alice Winocour. 

• Louder than Bombs, the English-language debut of award-winning Norwegian director Joachim Trier, an intelligent, well-acted and elegantly crafted exploration of family ties starring Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne and Isabelle Huppert.

• Urban Hymn Shirley Henderson gives a remarkable performance as a damaged social worker at the time of the London riots who takes in an equally traumatised teenage girl (Letitia Wright). 

• Human Highway (Director’s Cut) An ultra-rare, never-before-seen remastering of Neil Young’s mind-bending post-apocalyptic musical comedy, featuring Dennis Hopper and the band Devo. A must for all the Young dudes.

• Sing Street: after the crowd-pleasing success of Once, writer/director John Carney returns to Dublin for this charming musical. An electrifying coming-of-age story – with a dream of a soundtrack – starring Aidan Gillan and Maria Doyle Kennedy.

• The Propaganda Game A fascinating journey into North Korea, where everyone is playing the propaganda game, by director Álvaro Longoria. 

• Traders Acerbic social satire from Ireland looking at the new phenomenon of ‘econosuicide’, following two financially-strapped men who agree to fight to the death for each others’ life savings.

• Bridgend A sensitive fictionalisation of the mysterious spate of suicides to hit the small Welsh town in the mid-2000s, directed by Danish documentarian Jeppe Rønde.

• Marguerite, a delightful comedy of manners inspired by the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Xavier Giannoli

• Peace Officer, a hard-hitting, utterly fascinating documentary on US police shootings and gun culture. Winner of the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award at SXSW.

• Suburra: Director Stefano Sollima made Romanzo Criminale and Gomorra into unmissable television events. Now he returns to the big screen with a swaggering, fast-paced thriller steeped in the crime and corruption at the heart of modern Rome.

• Where Do We Go From Here? A gentle and unique spin on the romantic comedy, this new Scottish treat, which won Best Film at the Sydney Indie Film Festival, offers a delightful blend of Still Game-inspired elderly shenanigans and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest-style breakouts.

SCOTTISH PREMIERES
59 of this year’s films are Scottish premieres, including: 

• High-Rise, a brutal, elegant examination of class warfare. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons and Elisabeth Moss star in Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s dystopian 1975 novel.

• Green Room Blue Ruin director Jeremy Saulnier returns with another piercing, blackly comic journey into the dark and dangerous fringes of American life. Sir Patrick Stewart as you’ve never seen him before – the leader of a neo-Nazi group.

• Arabian Nights, Vols. 1-3 Miguel Gomes’ majestic epic uses the structure of Scheherazade’s ‘1001 Nights’ to examine life in contemporary Europe. Dark, ambitious and hugely entertaining, this trilogy of films is worth the investment of time. Destined to become one of the must-watch cinema events of 2016. 

• Experimenter Winona Ryder and Peter Sarsgaard star in Michael Almereyda’s surreal take on Dr Stanley Miligram’s infamous experiments into human cruelty. 

• Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story This sexy, sun-kissed salute to teen spirit, evoking the work of Larry Clark and Sofia Coppola, caused a huge stir after its premiere at TIFF. 

• Office Hong Kong action maestro Johnnie To strikes out in a completely different direction with this glossy, extravagant musical satire on corporate greed.

• Dheepan, director Jacques Audiard’s (Rust and Bone) immensely powerful 2015 Palme d’Or winner. Ex-Tamil Tiger Dheepan, is played by real life former-Tiger child soldier Antonythasan Jesuthasan.

• Truth James Vanderbilt directs Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett in a tense, beautifully-wrought political thriller with echoes of All The President’s Men, based on real-life events.

• Heart of a Dog Laurie Anderson’s beautiful, playful stream-of-consciousness riff on love and mortality, following the deaths of her mother, her husband Lou Reed and her beloved dog, using animation and 8mm home movies. (Part of Crossing the Line)

• Couple In A Hole, powerful yet understated drama starring local favourites Kate Dickie and Paul Higgins. Deep in a French forest an apparently normal Scottish couple exist like savages.

• Chevalier Athina Rachel Tsangari’s bracingly eccentric and richly comic reflection on the male ego, which won Best Film at LFF. 

• No Home Movie: Pioneering filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s final film is an intimate video essay that focuses on her relationship with her mother Natalia, a Holocaust survivor. (Part of Crossing the Line)

• Hitchcock/Truffaut The cinema-changing week-long encounter between two directing giants is recalled in this exceptional documentary by Kent Jones. 

• Eisenstein in Guanajuato Peter Greenaway’s exuberant, multifaceted reinterpretation of a period in the Battleship Potemkin director’s life.

• Goodnight Mommy Austria’s Oscar entry is a chilling story of ten-year old twins and the bandaged woman they begin to suspect is not their mother. 

• The Cowboys (Les cowboys): Best known as the writer of A Prophet, Thomas Bidegain moves behind the camera with a hauntingly intense reworking of the John Ford landmark The Searchers.

• Departure, the assured first feature from Andrew Steggall, is a confidently-composed, beautifully photographed family drama starring Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game) and Juliet Stevenson.

• Speed Sisters An innovative documentary about a team of Palestinian female racing car drivers, struggling against the social pressures of gender and nationality in a doubly fraught political context.

• I Am Belfast, Director Mark Cousins ventures back home with a portrait of his native Belfast, depicted here as a copper-haired woman who has survived times of violence, despair and elation.

• James White, Josh Mond’s debut feature, which took the Audience Award at Sundance among many others, is an edgy, intense exploration of a hedonistic twentysomething struggling to find his bearings in a frenzied New York City. Starring Christopher Abbott (Girls) and Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City).

• Remember An anguished, deeply-felt performance from Oscar-winning veteran Christopher Plummer distinguishes this poignant thriller.

• The Wave, Norway’s record-breaking Oscar entry, set in a town overcome by a natural disaster.

EUROPEAN PREMIERES
• A Month of Sundays A captivating Anthony La Paglia receives one of his best film roles in this gentle, ambling account of one man’s mid-life crisis. A tale of redemption told with dry wit and a light touch. 

• Documentary Now! A smash-hit in the USA and heralded as one of the best TV shows of 2015 by The New York Times, Documentary Now! is the brainchild of Saturday Night Live alumni Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Myers. GFF hosts the first European screenings of the two-part season finale.

• Man vs. Snake: The Long And Twisted Tale Of Nibbler Documentary following Tim McVey, the first person to score over a billion points on a video game as he tries to protect his status from competitors, followed by a retro arcade gaming session at Glasgow’s Drygate Brewery.

• The Other Side of The Door The latest production from visionary horror titan Alexandre Aja (Switchblade Romance, The Hills Have Eyes) is an exotic tale of supernatural threat directed by rising British talent Johannes Roberts. Part of FrightFest.

WORLD PREMIERES
• Hamish Robbie Fraser’s highly anticipated documentary pays tribute to the many contrary forces and diverse facets of Hamish Henderson (1919-2002), a colossal figure in Scottish culture and a man of boundless passion and curiosity whose poems continue to elevate and inspire a nation. 

• Margaret Tait Award: Evolutionary Jerks & Gradualist Creeps GFF’s annual Margaret Tait Award, which offers a £10,000 commission to a Scottish or Scotland-based artist to create a new film, was won in 2015 by Glasgow artist filmmaker and musician Duncan Marquiss. Evolutionary Jerks… focuses on Niles Eldredge’s revolutionary theory of evolution, and expands into a discussion on cultural evolution. 

• Where You’re Meant To Be Cult pop raconteur Aidan Moffat embarks on a folk music-tinged odyssey through Scotland. This world premiere screening will also be the first ever feature-length film shown at Glasgow’s legendary Barrowland Ballroom, preceded by a live gig. (The event at the Barrowlands is sold out, but a second screening will take place at GFT on Wed 24 Feb.)

INDUSTRY FOCUS
Industry Focus is a landmark development for the traditionally audience-focused festival. Aimed at independent producers, feature, short and documentary filmmakers, this conference runs from Wed 24- Thurs 25 Feb. The programme has two halves: Inspiration, looking at new technologies and innovative strategies for production, and Funding, in which panels of funders, broadcasters, and distributors discuss available opportunities for filmmakers. Organisers hope that Industry Focus will help strengthen and offer valuable support to the Scottish film industry. Speakers include representatives from Curzon Film, the BFI, Verve, Metrodome, Film4, BBC Film, the Danish Film Institute, the Irish Film Board, Creative Scotland and Creative Europe. Filmmakers can also apply to meet one-to-one with representatives from some of Europe’s biggest funding bodies and pitch them their films. All events will take place at 29 Glasgow; two-day pass £50, one-day pass £30. Full details online.

SOUND & VISION
Glasgow also has a global reputation for its music scene, forever keeping the city on the cutting edge of cool, and GFF’s Sound & Vision strand puts music at the very heart of the festival programme. Through spectacular crossover events throughout the city, live performance from vocalist and composer Ela Orleans, as well as premiere screenings of documentaries and features from around the world, Sound & Vision pays homage to Glasgow's musical background in genre-spanning style.

• Danny Says, the story of Danny Fields, a hugely influential music exec in the 1960s-80s. 

• Highlife: Latin American Especial sees globe-trotting party-starters Highlife showcase footage from their recent trip to South America during a Latin-American themed party, part of their Art School residency.

• Human Highway, a psychedelic comedy courtesy of Neil Young’s pseudonym Bernard Shakey, has its UK premiere, re-cut 34 years after its release

• The Idol, a triumphant account of a major new reality star of the Arab States that celebrates the universality of great music.

• Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple offers a glimpse into the turbulent life of incendiary soul singer and one-of-a-kind performer Miss Sharon Jones! **UK premiere**

• Once director John Carney returns with musical Sing Street, starring Aiden Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy, where 14 year-old Cosmo forms a band to win over his dream girl in 1980s Dublin. **UK Premiere**

• Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives, a star-studded documentary following a radio duo who brought a unique audience together and created a platform to change music forever.

• This Is Now: Film and Video after Punk (1978-85), an exhibition of post-punk artists’ films exploring the blurred lines between images and identity, creating new dialogues between the self and the world, at Tramway.

• Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho ft. Bards of Caledon & Other Lands celebrates Robbie Basho, the unsung master of outcast folk music, followed by a spoken-word and instrumental performance.

CROSSING THE LINE
The Crossing the Line strand celebrates Glasgow’s dynamic creative scene through a selection of moving image works, experimental and artist films, including Scottish premieres of Miranda Pennell’s first feature-length film The Host, Ben Rivers’ third feature The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, and the final film from pioneering film maker Chantal Akerman, No Home Movie. Other highlights include a programme of film and video works selected by artist filmmaker Lyndsay Mann in Say-So presented by MAP, a director’s preview of Margaret Salmon’s first feature-length film Eglantine, and the world premiere of Evolutionary Jerks & Gradualist Creeps, the new film from Margaret Tait Award winner and Glasgow-based artist Duncan Marquiss.

MODERN FAMILIES
Headlined by the UK premiere of Disney’s Zootropolis, our family-friendly strand also includes a celebration of Roald Dahl’s centenary, with special screenings of Fantastic Mr Fox and Matilda at Kinning Park Complex, which children are invited to help transform into Dahl-world through artist workshops – food inspired by Dahl’s books will be created by The Project Café. Families are also invited to shout encore! for the 25th anniversary of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, screened in Glasgow’s beautiful old mansion Trades Hall with pre-screening waltzing lessons for kids, who can also get in free to our Take 2 screenings of Lady & The Tramp and German charmer Fiddlesticks.

FESTIVALS WITHIN THE FESTIVAL
Glasgow Youth Film Festival has already released their programme to the press and public: for a copy, please email [email protected]. Glasgow Short Film Festival will announce their programme on 03/02/2016. Please contact [email protected] for further information.

GLASGOW YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL 12–15 February 
Glasgow Youth Film Festival, the only film festival in Europe curated by 15-18 year olds, kicks off with Puritan supernatural chiller and Sundance favourite The Witch, starring Kate Dickie (Prometheus, Game of Thrones), who will introduce the film. The weekend-long programme has been designed to showcase young filmmakers from all over the world; 80% of these new films are by first-time feature directors, spanning themes with huge relevance to young people across the globe – first love, peer pressure, struggles with identity and generational conflict. The festival ends with a pop-up screening of Edward Scissorhands in repurposed church-turned bar St Luke’s, which will be filled with specially-shaped topiary for an atmospheric fancy dress gala event. www.glasgowfilm.org/gyff

GLASGOW SHORT FILM FESTIVAL: 16–20 March
The ninth annual Glasgow Short Film Festival opens with the world premiere of the major new commission Lost Treasure, a re-imagining of Dawn Cine Group's uncompleted 1956 film by Drew Wright (Wounded Knee), Hamish Brown (Swimmer One) and filmmaker Minttu Mäntynen. The full GSFF programme is announced on 3 February. More details online.

SUPPORTER COMMENT
Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: ‘Every year Glasgow Film Festival provides a substantial boost to the local economy and attracts visitors from throughout the UK and beyond. The calibre of this year’s programme reinforces our credentials as a world-class cultural destination and leading cinema city.’

Natalie Usher, Director of Film and Media at Creative Scotland, said ‘Creative Scotland is a proud supporter of Glasgow Film Festival, which remains one of the top 3 film festivals in the UK. This year’s edition promises a fun, innovative and accessible programme of films, special screenings and events, with its faithful and growing audience at its heart.  Whatever your engagement is with film, from fascinating premieres of the best of world cinema, through to filmmaker-focused discussions, and films for all the family, I’m sure everyone will find something to enjoy.’

Stuart Turner, Head of EventScotland, said ‘Glasgow Film Festival has grown into a cultural cornerstone for Scotland, attracting UK premieres as well as providing a platform to homegrown talent. With unique special events at iconic venues such as Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Barrowlands and the Glasgow Science Centre, the 2016 programme once again demonstrates why its host city is the perfect stage for events.’

About Glasgow Film Festival
The twelfth annual Glasgow Film Festival runs from 17-28 February 2016. The full programme will be launched on the evening of Wednesday 20 January, with a pdf of the brochure online at www.glasgowfilm.org/festival from 19.15; the programme will be online from Thursday 21 January. Tickets for the FrightFest strand, which can only be bought as passes for the whole weekend, went on sale on Tues 12 Jan and the Opening and Closing Galas went on sale on Mon 18 Jan; tickets for the main programme will go on sale from 10am on Monday 25 January. Most tickets are priced at £9.50 (adult concessions £7.50; child tickets £5); certain special events have separate prices. The Festival for a Fiver initiative, and this year’s programme of free screenings, make selected films even more accessible to audiences. Tickets are available here or from the GFT Box Office, 12 Rose Street Glasgow, 0141 332 6535.

The main GFF programme includes 308 screenings and events this year. Sixty of the films of this year’s programme are UK premieres; three are world premieres, four are European premieres and fifty-nine are Scottish premieres. Although based out of art deco cinema Glasgow Film Theatre, the festival this year makes use of nineteen venues across the city, including iconic spaces like the Lighthouse, the Barrowland Ballroom and the Glasgow Planetarium for the first time. Glasgow Film Festival’s co-directors are noted film critic Allan Hunter, and Allison Gardner, Head of Cinemas at Glasgow Film Theatre.

More visiting guests will be announced in the run up to the Festival itself.

FEATURE IDEAS
Anniversaries A number of contemporary classic films celebrate a significant anniversary this year, and we’re screening some of the best, both at IMAX and in our Special Events programme Readers of The List will also vote on whether Trainspotting, From Dusk Till Dawn or Scream fills our 1996 IMAX slot. Key films: Aliens (1986; at IMAX), Beauty and Beast (1991), Carrie (1976; at IMAX), Matilda (1996), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Network (1976), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma and Louise (1991), Top Gun (1986; at IMAX), William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Films based on real-life events: Bridgend, The Idol, Miles Ahead, The Clan, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, Experimenter, Marguerite, Miles Ahead, Truth, The Violin Teacher, The White Knight.

The GFF programming team Assisting GFF co-directors Allison Gardner and Allan Hunter to shape the distinctive, inventive nature of the festival are a young team of programmers creating innovative pop-up events and programming their own strands of the festival. Emma McIntyre, the imagination behind our brilliant special events programme, and Sean Greenhorn, who created the Sound & Vision strand, are both available for interview. 

Talent Guests appearing at the festival may be available for interview in advance; certain confirmed guests are available now. Please contact Kirstin Innes ([email protected]) for further details.

STRANDS IN THE 2015 PROGRAMME
Fact sheets on the various strands mentioned here are available on request.
• Anniversaries at IMAX Enjoy some of the best films from 1976, 1986 and 1996 on the big big screen at IMAX

• Behind the Scenes A series of talks and discussions that pulls back the screen to offer unprecedented access to the backstage world of film and television, and won’t cost you a penny.

• CineMasters A first chance to catch new works from some of the biggest names in international filmmaking.

• Crossing the Line Experimental films to challenge and inspire. Somewhere between visual art and cinema. Bring your imagination.

• Discovering Duvivier A short tribute screening three of Julien Duvivier’s most enduring films: an introduction to one of cinema’s neglected masters.

• Dream Steams on the Silver Screen Celebrating stars who won the adoration of moviegoers as double acts, made more than one film together, and created a special magic on the big screen.

• FrightFest Back-to-back horror premieres to get hearts racing and adrenalin pumping.

• Gala Stars, premieres, red carpets – get your glad rags out for GFF’s most ‘gala-morous’ events.

• Modern Families Fantastical, imaginative features and animation to delight all audiences.

• Local Heroes Celebrates home-grown talent and salutes those filmmakers producing outstanding work whilst staying right here

• Nerdvana Spectacular screenings and heated discussions collide in a celebration of cult classics, gaming gregariousness, and all things geek.

• Pioneer International first-time and emerging filmmakers pushing the limits of cinematography.

• Roads to the South: Argentine Cinema offers a snapshot of contemporary Argentinean cinema, from joyous crowd-pleasers to haunting dramas, heart-warming road movies to chilling true-life crime thrillers.

• Sound & Vision Exploring the interplay between music and cinema with a specially curated programme of screenings, live music, and events.

• Special Events Unique and atmospheric venues become picture houses, as the films step off the screen. Rediscover cult classics and old favourites in a ‘total cinema’ experience.

• Stranger than Fiction You couldn’t make it up – weird, wonderful and thought-provoking new documentaries from across the world.

• Window on the World Explore the world from your cinema seat with a selection of brilliant international titles.

Glasgow Film Festival would like to thank its major partners:
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) is the official destination marketing organisation (DMO) for the city of Glasgow. As custodian of the PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW brand, GCMB works with partners, stakeholders and businesses to position and promote Glasgow across national and international markets as one of Europe’s most vibrant, dynamic and diverse cities in which to live, work, study, invest and visit.

EventScotland is the national events agency, working to ensure Scotland’s reputation as the perfect stage for events is recognised nationally and internationally. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the economy by attracting more visitors. EventScotland is part of VisitScotland, the national tourism organisation which markets Scotland as a tourism destination across the world, gives support to the tourism industry and brings sustainable tourism growth to Scotland.

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here.  We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life.  We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.

Follow us @creativescots and Facebook.

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive, by connecting audiences to the widest choice of British and World cinema; by preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations; by championing emerging and world class film makers in the UK; by investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work; by promoting British film and talent to the world, and by growing the next generation of film makers and audiences.  The BFI is now a Government arm’s-length body and distributor of Lottery funds for film. The BFI serves a public role which covers the cultural, creative and economic aspects of film in the UK. It delivers this role as the UK-wide organisation for film, a charity core funded by Government; by providing Lottery and Government funds for film across the UK, and by working with partners to advance the position of film in the UK.