Glasgow Film Festival’s 20th edition closed in style tonight with the announcement of the winner of its prestigious Audience Award and the World Premiere of Janey.
Glasgow Film Festival’s (GFF’s) Audience Award is sponsored by MUBI and chosen by the most important people at the festival - its audience. From an eight-strong shortlist of films by first or second-time directors, it was feel-good Icelandic football documentary The Home Game that took home the trophy, netting the highest-ever audience score in the Award’s 10-year history. The Home Game is the irresistible true story of plucky village football team and had its UK Premiere at GFF.
In 1994 one man in the Icelandic village of Hellissandur (population: 369) had a dream to build a professional standard football pitch and play a home game in the country’s FA Cup. He managed his first objective, but the side drew an away game and fell to a 10-0 defeat. Fast-forward to 2020 and his son Kari takes up the gauntlet, re-forming Reynir FC with a ragtag bunch of locals including handy 15-year-old schoolboy rapper David Svanur Hafthorsson, 40-something big man in goal Gunnar Orn Arnarson, and former Iceland Women’s Team international Freydis Bjarnadottir, whose inclusion in the team threatens them with disqualification from the FA.
Smari Gunn and Logi Sigursveinsson’s crowd-pleasing documentary follows their journey in an uplifting celebration of team and community spirit for underdogs everywhere.
Films also shortlisted for the Audience Award included Viggo Mortensen’s Western The Dead Don’t Hurt, Aylin Tezel’s Isle of Skye-shot romance Falling Into Place and The Teacher, a powerful drama from British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi.
GFF 2024 then welcomed Glasgow stand-up Janey Godley onto the red carpet for the Closing Gala World Premiere of Janey. John Archer’s honest, moving and often hilarious documentary about Glasgow comedian Janey Godley, interweaves stories from her life with footage from her Not Dead Yet tour, in the wake of her terminal cancer diagnosis. Janey found fame for her sweary anti-Trump placards, became a social media sensation as she revoiced First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid briefings, was called out for controversial historic tweets and was trying to rebuild her career when she received her diagnosis. Featuring appearances from familiar faces including Nicola Sturgeon and Jimmy Carr, the film captures Janey Godley at her most vulnerable and most gallus. Following its World Premiere at Glasgow Film Festival, Janey will be released in UK cinemas from 15 March.
Janey Godley and daugher Ashley Storrie at the premiere of Janey, courtesy of Glasgow Film Festival
The Home Game’s directors Smari Gunn and Logi Sigursveinsson said: “We are incredibly proud to receive this honour at Glasgow Film Festival. Being a small film from Iceland, it means so much for us to get this recognition and the opportunity to share the story of these loveable Icelandic villagers, as far and wide as possible. Everyone at GFF has been so welcoming to us and the audience reactions really blew us away. Huge thanks to all the people that came out, watched the film, and showed such warmth and support. Thank you Glasgow!”
Allison Gardner, Director of Glasgow Film Festival and CEO of Glasgow Film, said: “We are delighted that The Home Game has won the audience award, our audiences are the best in the world and we can’t thank them enough. We have had a brilliant time welcoming guests to the festival and I want to warmly thank MUBI for their support of our Audience Award.”
Audience Award sponsor MUBI said: “Bringing audiences closer to a wide range of new and exciting cinema is what MUBI is all about, and we are honoured to partner with Glasgow Film Festival for the first time this year to support the only prize the festival gives out - the Audience Award.”
Over 12 packed days, GFF24 celebrated its 20th edition by welcoming a host of famous faces to the city including Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay, Emily Hampshire, Graham Norton, Dale Dickey, Maxine Peake, Kevin Macdonald, Rose Glass, Solly Mcleod and more. The festival also brought exciting new and established directors from across the world to Glasgow, including Senegal’s Ramata-Toulaye Sy with Banel & Adama, Sri Lanka’s Ilango Ram with Tentigo, Canada’s Jonas Chernick and Sean Garrity with The Burning Season, Czechia’s Jarmila Stukova with Is There Any Place For Me, Please? and Tamil-American Samyuktha Vijayan with Blue Sunshine.
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GFF is one of the leading film festivals in the UK and is run by Glasgow Film, a charity which also runs Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow Film Festival is made possible by support from Screen Scotland, the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding and Glasgow Life.