This year's Glasgow Film Festival returns 2 March, hosting a fantastic selection of World, UK and Scottish premieres.
After a fully virtual edition of the festival last year, we are so glad to see the festival return to Glasgow Film Theatre and Cineworld on Renfrew Street for in-person screenings. The digital aspect of the festival is not lost entirely however, as a selection of the films will be made available to watch online throughout the festival period via the Glasgow Film At Home platform.
We are delighted to be supporting GFF 2022 and are looking forward to seeing audience members return to the big screen and immerse themselves in the magic of cinema once again.
We're extremely excited to see a such a wide range of our supported projects featured in the programme including Jono McLeod's shocking and entertaining documentary hybrid My Old School, Lizzie MacKenzie's heartfelt and enlightening The Hermit of Treig, and Martyn Robertson’s thrillingly shot documentary Ride the Wave.
Read on to find out more about the wealth of Scottish and Scotland-based talent that will be on show at Glasgow Film Festival.
My Old School
European Premiere - Thursday 3 March, 8.25pm
Jono McLeod’s wildly entertaining, jaw-dropping documentary hybrid tells the outrageous story of Scotland’s Great Pretender, Brandon Lee. In 1993, Brandon enrolled at Bearsden Academy. He seemed a little different from the other 16-year-olds. A little wiser, a little more worldly perhaps and more in need of a shave. He eventually became one of the cool kids and a bright student with a very promising future. Then people started to discover that Brandon was not who they thought he was. The film becomes a glorious voyage of discovery through the stories of class 5C, a pitch perfect performance from Alan Cumming, wonderful animation, a cast of famous voices and a stonking soundtrack led by Lulu’s title song.
Additional screening on Friday 4 March, 3:00pm. Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/my-old-school-nc-15
Still from My Old School. Courtesy of Hopscotch films.
The Hermit of Treig
World Premiere – Saturday 5 March, 3:30pm
Ken Smith has spent the past four decades living in a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as 'the lonely loch', not too far from Fort William. He has no electricity or running water. He lives off the land, fishing for his supper, chopping wood, and even brewing his own tipple. Director Lizzie MacKenzie has known Ken since 2012 and filmed him through changing seasons and challenging health problems. Her warm, captivating documentary, now presented in a feature-length version, fondly celebrates a man in the wilderness and records the friendship that has grown between them.
Additional screening on Sunday 6 March, 3:45pm and on Glasgow Film At Home 8 – 10 March. Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/the-hermit-of-treig-nc-8-1
Still from The Hermit of Treig.
Outlander
Series 6 Preview Screening – Thursday 3 March, 5:45pm
Outlander has captivated audiences around the world for five seasons. This time-travelling saga has kept us hooked by spanning the genres of history, science fiction, romance and adventure in one amazing tale. Luckily, the story isn’t over. Claire and Jamie return to our screens this March. Don't miss out on this very exclusive preview screening of the very first episode of Season 6 before the new season premieres.
Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/outlander-preview-screening-nc-18
Still from Outlander. Courtesy of STARZ.
Skint
World Premiere – Thursday 10 March, 5:30pm
Poverty is the connecting tissue in this powerful, heartfelt collection of monologues commissioned for BBC Arts. Now showing in a feature-length compendium, Skint brings together a wealth of talent on both sides of the camera to tell vivid, heartrending personal stories of living with poverty and homelessness, and how it is used to define who you are. Highlights include Heart Of Glass written and directed by Jenni Fagan and starring Isis Hainsworth, and James Price’s The Taking Of Balgrayhill Street with a tour-de-force performance from Peter Mullan.
Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/skint-nc-15
Still from Skint. Courtesy of GFF.
Nobody Has to Know
UK Premiere – Thursday 10 March, 8:30pm
Bouli Lanners wears his heart on his sleeve in this touching romance set in Scotland. Belgian farmhand Phil (Lanners) has exiled himself to the remote, windswept Isle of Lewis. He suffers a stroke that leaves no physical impairment, but an amnesia that may or may not be temporary. Estate agent and farmer’s daughter Millie (Michelle Fairley) seems particularly concerned. How can she help him piece together his past, and a secret relationship between them that he doesn’t even remember? A quietly touching, unabashed weepie with a radiant central performance from Game Of Thrones’s Fairley.
Additional screening on Friday 11 March, 3:45pm and on Glasgow Film At Home. Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/nobody-has-to-know-nc-15
Still from Nobody Has to Know. Courtesy of barry crerar.
Ride the Wave
Scottish Premiere – Thursday 10 March, 6:15pm
Ben Larg was just 12 when he became Scotland’s Under-18 Surfing Champion. Ride The Wave charts the years that follow, as he makes the move to international competitions. Director Martyn Robertson captures Ben’s physical and emotional growth as he leaves home in Tiree to compete in Japan, Portugal and the treacherous waters around County Sligo. Risking life and limb against nature in the raw is the basis of a warmhearted portrait of the surfing community and a family torn between protecting their teenage son and allowing him the freedom to pursue his dream.
Additional screening on Friday 11 March, 1:45pm. Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/ride-the-wave-nc-8
Still from Ride the Wave. Courtesy of Urbancroft Films.
Legacy of an Invisible Bullet
World Premiere – Sunday 13 March, 3:30pm
Legacy of an Invisible Bullet is a self-portrait of a film-maker stripped bare. Filmed between Scotland and Denmark and featuring archive from across the world that dates as far back as the 1970s punk era, Legacy of an Invisible Bullet is a personal account of what happens when you lose your armour as a man, and as a film-maker start looking in rather than out at the world.
Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/legacy-of-an-invisible-bullet-nc-15
Still from Legacy of an Invisible Bullet. Courtesy of GFF.
Pictures from Iraq
World Premiere – Sunday 13 March, 1:15pm
Following on from the hugely acclaimed Pictures from Afghanistan (GFF20), journalist, photographer and war correspondent David Pratt reunites with director Robbie Fraser for a further fascinating, highly personal journey into the recent history of a war-torn land. Pratt has covered decades of conflict in Iraq and now travels from Erbil to Mosul, charting the country’s active political faultlines and meeting old friends like Swedish/Iraqi journalist Urban Hamid, and an Iraqi photographer who documented his life in Mosul during the four years of of hell that was the ISIS occupation
Book tickets: https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/pictures-from-iraq-nc-15
Still from Pictures from Iraq. Courtesy of GFF.
Header image: GFF co-director Allison Gardner.