Glasgow Short Film Festival has announced the competition selection for its 14th edition, running from 22 to 28 March 2021. Following the success of GSFF20 Online and due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s Glasgow Short Film Festival will take place entirely online at the festival hub, accessible to anyone in the UK.
Today also marks the launch of the GSFF 2021 festival trailer directed by James Price, winner of the GSFF Scottish Audience Award in 2020 for Boys Night. The trailer, which revisits the mural created for the 2020 festival trailer, stars Glasgow comedy legend Jonathan Watson (Only an Excuse?, Two Doors Down, Naked Video, City Lights). Watch the trailer here.
Glasgow Short Film Festival has two annual competitions: the Scottish Short Film Award which honours inspiration and innovation in new Scottish cinema and the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film which showcases new cinema from around the world. Across the two competitions, GSFF21 will present 7 World Premieres, 14 UK Premieres and 2 European Premieres.
The GSFF21 audience will have the opportunity to choose their favourites to win the Scottish and International Audience Awards, whilst international juries of filmmakers and curators select the winners of the Bill Douglas Award and the Scottish Short Film Award. Each jury award carries a cash prize of £1,000. The GSFF21 Scottish Audience Award winner will receive a commission to make the GSFF 2022 trailer.
The Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film turns 10 this year. Named in honour of Scotland’s greatest filmmaker, the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film was inaugurated by Bill’s lifelong friend and collaborator Peter Jewell in 2012. Each year we award a film that best reflects the qualities found in the work of Bill Douglas: honesty, formal innovation and the supremacy of image and sound in cinematic storytelling.
In this tenth year of the award, we revisit the previous nine winning films, alongside new interviews between each filmmaker and a member of the jury that selected their film. These interviews will be available on Glasgow Short Film Festival’s brand new podcast available from March, produced by Halina Rifai from Glasgow Podcart and A Sonic Hug.
Glasgow Short Film Festival is pleased to announce the 2021 competition films:
Scottish Short Film Award
- 12th Man | Caitlin Black
- Against the Tide | Giulia Candussi
- Burn on Arrival | Owen Gower | World Premiere
- Consumed | Karen Lamond Do No Harm | Douglas King
- Everyman | Jack Goessens
- Expensive Shit | Adura Onashile
- Forest Floor | Robbie Synge
- Green Thoughts | William Hong-xiao Wei
- Harmonic Spectrum | Austen McCowan, Will Hewitt
- Isle of Us | Laura Wadha
- Keith Water | Izzy Gibbs
- Lighting Tests | Tom Nicoll | UK Premiere
- Lupi Lupi Lu | Adam Castle
- The Mad Shagger | Ciaran Lyons | World Premiere
- Opal | Kirsty McLean
- Patrick | Luke Fowler
- Rare Creatures | Cameron Nicoll | World Premiere
- SCUZZ | Alia Ghafar
- The Shift | Laura Carreira
- Sudden Death | Rhona Mühlebach | World Premiere
- Zatvaranje | Chris Leslie | World Premiere
Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film
- Bella | Thelyia Petraki, Greece
- Have a Nice Dog! | Jalal Maghout, Germany | UK Premiere
- Heaven Reaches Down to Earth | Tebogo Malebogo, South Africa | UK Premiere
- How to Die Young in Manila | Petersen Vargas, Philippines | European Premiere
- Huntsville Station | Chris Filippone, Jamie Meltzer, USA | UK Premiere
- I am afraid to forget your face | Sameh Alaa, Egypt
- In her Steps | Anastasia Kratidi, Greece | UK Premiere
- It's All the Salt's Fault | María Cristina Pérez, Colombia | UK Premiere
- It’s Alright | Jorūnė Greičiūtė, Lithuania | European Premiere
- KKUM | Kim Kang-min, South Korea | UK Premiere
- Letter to my mother | Amina Maher, Iran | UK Premiere
- Life on the Horn | Mo Harawe, Somalia
- Maalbeek | Ismael Joffroy Chandoutis, France | UK Premiere
- MASS | Nadeem Din-Gabisi, UK
- My Own Landscapes | Antoine Chapon, France
- Natsuko | Shuna Iijima, Japan | World Premiere
- One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean | Wang Yuyan, France | UK Premiere
- People on Sunday | Tulapop Saenjaroen, Thailand
- Places | Vytautas Katkus, Lithuania | UK Premiere
- Red Aninsri; or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall | Ratchapoom
- Boonbunchachoke, Thailand | UK Premiere
- Salvia at Nine | Jang Nari, South Korea | UK Premiere
- Signs | Louise Stern, UK | World Premiere
- So What If The Goats Die | Sofia Alaoui, France
- Spotted Yellow | Baran Sarmad, Iran | UK Premiere
- Store Policy | Sarah Arnold, France
- Under the North Sea | Alberto Allica, Federico Barni, UK
- Unliveable | Matheus Farias, Enock Carvalho, Brazil
- Where to Land | Sawandi Groskind, Finland
Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film 10 Year Anniversary programme films
- 3 Logical Exits | Mahdi Fleifel | Denmark, UK, Lebanon | 2020
- Liminality & Communitas | Laura Rantanen | Finland | 2019
- Strange Says the Angel | Shalimar Preuss | France | 2018
- Green Screen Gringo | Douwe Dijkstra | Netherlands, Brazil | 2017
- A Short Guide to Re-Entry | Anwar Boulifa | UK | 2016
- Shipwreck | Morgan Knibbe | Netherlands | 2015
- The Questioning | Zhu Rikun | China | 2014
- Enraged Pigs | Leonardo Sette, Isabel Penoni | Brazil | 2013
- Fini | Jacob Secher Schulsinger | Denmark | 2012
Further programme announcements for GSFF21 will be made on Wednesday 10 March. Audiences can expect dynamic programmes featuring world-class films that will not only reflect a year in lockdown but offer escapism. GSFF’s regular European Film Academy shorts programme and the ever-popular Comedy , Horror and Family-Friendly programmes will return as will other programmes launched from 2020. Brand-new programmes will respond to our needs, desires and conversations of the last year, while our friends and recurring guest programmers at Matchbox Cinema will also present a programme at GSFF21. Stay tuned for further details.
GSFF is pleased to announce that The Skinny will be an official media partner for GSFF21, after many years of support and collaboration. The Skinny will be supporting a special programme at this year’s festival to be announced in March.
All GSFF21 programmes, including Q&As, will be captioned for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences. This year’s edition will continue to implement a pay-what-you-can sliding scale for passes with the aim of improving access and inclusion.
Public registration for the GSFF online festival hub opens on Wednesday 17 February with festival passes on sale to the public from midday . Industry accreditation is free and now available. For more information and to register for GSFF21, go to glasgowshort.org/online.
Matt Lloyd, GSFF Director, said: Contrary to expectations, we were overwhelmed by a massive 4,500 submissions this year, an almost 50% increase on last year. We’re thrilled to be showcasing urgent, searching, moving works from across the world, and whilst we’re sad that yet again we can’t introduce these filmmakers to our audience in person, we can at least ensure that their work reaches a wide audience in Scotland and across the UK. The selection was our most democratic decision to date, with a fantastic team of viewers involving themselves at every stage of the process.
Our Scottish competition selection is as diverse in themes and forms as ever, and we’re excited that amongst them are five world premieres. A massive thanks to everyone who has supported us through the last year, and in particular to Screen Scotland and to The Skinny, who have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to GSFF and to short film in Scotland.
Sanne Jehoul, GSFF Co-director, said: A benefit of running GSFF online for a second year is that this time around, we have been able to let our programme respond to both the virtual context as well as the wider conversations and collective needs that have come into focus over this pandemic. That has led to a programme which offers audiences more flexibility and complementary elements, such as our podcast episodes which provide additional context for and engagement with our programme and the filmmakers we’ve championed in the past, as well as live group Q&As with our Scottish competition filmmakers. We are excited to soon share our full programme and its reflections on the year gone by. More than anything, we feel grateful that this space, even online, gives us an opportunity to collaborate and (re)connect with a generous community of filmmakers, curators, partners and audiences.
Background
Glasgow Short Film Festival, the largest competitive short film festival in Scotland, champions new film talent by providing an annual showcase and meeting point for new and established Scottish and international filmmakers, industry delegates and the local audience. Our programme celebrates diverse forms of cinematic expression, and foregrounds disruptive, ground-breaking work that transgresses the boundaries of conventional narrative film. In 2019 the festival reconstituted as an independent Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), charity number SC049556. The 14th edition of the festival will run 22-28 March 2021. Public registration for the GSFF Online hub will open at midday on Wednesday 17 February and industry accreditation is available now at glasgowshort.org/online. Subscribe to GSFF’s newsletter for updates and visit www.glasgowshort.org for further information. Follow GSFF on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Glasgow Short Film Festival is funded by Screen Scotland.
Screen Scotland is the dedicated partnership for screen in Scotland. With funding from Scottish Government and the National Lottery, Screen Scotland is driving the cultural, social and economic development of all aspects of the sector in Scotland, through enhanced funding, services and support. Screen Scotland sits within Creative Scotland and is a partnership with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Funding Council, working in close collaboration with the sector to ensure its success. Find out more at screen.scot and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Media Contact
For further information and interview requests please contact Katie Goh | [email protected].