From 24 February to 7 March, GFF will host 6 World premieres, 2 European premieres, 49 UK premieres online. World premieres include Anthony Baxter’s Eye of the Storm and an exploration of the life of punkrock’s least conventional front person Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché   UK premiere of Creation Stories written by Irvine Welsh and starring Ewen Bremner leads a programme filled with strong Scottish stories

 Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) announces the full programme for its 2021 festival, with screenings hosted on Glasgow Film’s new online viewing platform Glasgow Film At Home. The programme contains 6 World premieres, 2 European premieres and 49 UK premieres. GFF is committed to bringing incredible cinema from filmmakers all around the world to our audiences.

Tickets will go on sale from 12 noon on Monday 18 January online.   More information is available at www.glasgowfilm.org./festival.

Originally planned as a hybrid in-cinema and online festival, GFF21 will now take place online only, due to the lockdown restrictions affecting most of Scotland and the rest of the UK.  The festival will open on Wednesday 24 February with Lee Isaac Chung’s autobiographical drama following a Korean-American family Minari, starring The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun, and close on Sunday 7 March with Suzanne Lindon’s debut feature Spring Blossom, a coming-of-age tale set against a dreamy Parisian backdrop.

This year’s Industry programme will run online between Monday 1 and Saturday 6 March.  A new scheme is announced to support filmmakers around the UK, aged under 30, to access the full Industry programme for just £10, sponsored by MUBI. Passes are limited and we actively encourage applications from individuals currently under-represented in the screen industries, which includes writers, directors, and producers from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled and D/deaf people, the LGBTIQI+ community, and women.

Industry passes are available to purchase now at www.glasgowfilm.org./festival. The full programme of Industry events will be announced on Tuesday 9 February.

GFF is one of the leading film festivals in the UK and run by Glasgow Film, a charity which also runs Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). GFF is made possible by support from Screen Scotland, the BFI (awarding funds from the National Lottery), Glasgow Life and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.

Scottish highlights include:  Scottish filmmaker Anthony Baxter (Flint, GFF 2020) for the World premiere of Eye of the Storm, which follows one of Scotland’s most gifted painters, James Morrison, through the last two years of his life. With animation from Catriona Black and a soundtrack from Karine Polwart, the result is a fond, affectionate portrait of the man and his legacy.

World and European Premieres features amongst others:   Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché brings to screen the life of ‘one of the least conventional front-persons in rock history’: Poly Styrene, founder of acclaimed punk band X-Ray Spex, co-directed by her daughter, Celeste Bell, and Paul Sng.

UK Premieres: GFF will host 49 UK premieres including Welsh thriller The Toll, starring Michael Smiley as a contented toll booth operator whose past shows up to haunt him. The cast also includes Annes Elwy and Iwan Rheon.  Apples is the haunting debut feature from Greek director Christos Nikou, set during a mysterious pandemic which causes sudden amnesia.

Christos Nikou _3@Bartosz ~Swiniarski

‘This year we have an exciting new collaboration with Shanghai Film Festival, who are bringing two incredible films to our programme: Back to the Wharf from director Xiaofeng Li which follows the events of one day across the years as a star pupil (Yu Zhang) finds his university place given to another boy; and Yang Lina’s Spring Tide which charts the experiences of three generations of Chinese women living under one roof. GFF will then take a programme of Scottish cinema to Shanghai for the next edition of their festival in June 2021.’

Incredible documentaries to make you think include Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2020 film of the year, the latest landmark documentary from Fred Wiseman, City Hall, a love letter to civic responsibility and democratic values set in the heard of Boston’s city government.

 Country Focus :This year, GFF turn their Country Focus to South Korea, with five incredible UK premieres, including Our Midnight, the debut feature from director Jung-eun Lim.

Audience Award nominees: The prestigious Audience Award – the only award given out at GFF and ‘voted for by our most important guests, the festival audience – returns with six exceptional titles from first or second-time directors, 50% of which are from female filmmakers.’

The Glasgow Film Festival Audience Award 2021 is sponsored by Caledonian MacBrayne and the winner will be revealed online on March 7.

Arrow Video FrightFest: FrightFest returns to Glasgow Film Festival with six thrilling new titles for film fans looking for a good scare. American Badger, Kirk Caouette’s gritty and turbo-driven action thriller makes its European premiere. Five UK premieres complete the FrightFest programme.

 Tickets for the programme will go on sale at noon on Monday 18 January at www.glasgowfilm.org/festival. Titles will be available to view between 24 February and 7 March on online platform Glasgow Film At Home (https://athome.glasgowfilm.org/), Glasgow Film’s streaming site, launched last year to provide a curated offering of titles available to watch online.

It is free to create an account and users can pre-order the GFF21 premieres they want to watch during the festival.