Glasgow Film Festival back in person for 2022

Glasgow Film Festival is announcing its programme for 2022, as it prepares to welcome people back in person after a year online.

Bosses have lined up more than 80 premiers, including 10 world premiers and films made by more female and Scottish talent than ever before.

The 18th edition of the annual festival will open with the UK premiere of The Outfit, a gripping and masterful thriller starring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance, and close with the UK premiere of the Camera D’or-winning Murina, a tense family drama directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic and executive-produced by Martin Scorsese.

Glasgow continues to attract the best of filmmaking talent

World premieres at GFF include Christina Ricci fleeing an abusive husband only to encounter more otherworldly horrors in Monstrous and Skint, a series of powerful monologues about living in poverty.

European premieres include Alan Cumming in the incredible true story of the 30-something Scot who enrolled back into the classroom in My Old School; a look at legendary photo-journalist Stephen McCurry in McCurry: The Pursuit of Colour; Stefan Forbes’ riveting New York true crime doc Hold Your Fire and Shin Su-won’s love letter to South Korean female film directors Hommage.

UK Premieres include synth-popumentary, a-ha The Movie; Bouli Lanners’ touching new romance, Nobody Has To Know, set on a windswept Scottish island.

The 13 Scottish premieres include Paul Verhoeven’s tale of power, punishment and the divine, Benedetta; Scottish director Ruth Paxton’s feature debut, A Banquet; Joachim Trier’s freewheeling anti-rom-com, The Worst Person In The World, and Ride the Wave, a documentary following 14-year-old Scottish surfing champion Ben Larg as he prepares to surf the world’s biggest waves.

GFF continues to champion international female talent behind the camera, with 40% of new films screening at the festival and 6 of the 7 Audience Award films having a woman director.

World, UK and Scottish Premieres

GFF will see the first ever big screen outing of Skint, a series of powerful, heartfelt monologues commissioned for the BBC and now showing as a feature-length compendium. Skint brings together a wealth of talent on both sides of the camera, with a creative team including Peter Mullan, Jenni Fagan, Cora Bissett and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, to tell vivid, heartrending personal stories of living with poverty, homelessness and how it is used to define who you are.

Other GFF World premieres include the freewheeling documentary Wake Up Punk from Joe Corré - the son of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood who in 2016 burnt millions of pounds worth of punk era memorabilia in protest – who questions whether the counterculture legacy has been commodified and distorted and Doug Aubrey’s hybrid feature, Legacy of an Invisible Bullet, which uses direct storytelling, technology and observational filmmaking to delve into the collapsed time universe of a cancer patient and war correspondent as he faces his demons, his archive and tries to survive.

Some of the most talked-about films on the festival circuit will also be getting their first Scottish big screen outing at GFF22, including Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven’s outrageous saga of a 17th century nun’s forbidden affair with another woman, and Joachim Trier’s freewheeling anti-romcom, The Worst Person In The World, starring a dazzling Renate Reinsve as woman trying to figure out her place in an unpredictable world.

Scottish Talent

Alongside My Old School, by Scottish director Jono MacLeod, GFF22 is thrilled to showcase a range of Scottish talent both behind and in front of the camera. GFF favourite Robbie Fraser (Final Ascent, Pictures From Afghanistan) reunites with legendary Scottish war photographer David Pratt in the World premiere of Pictures From Iraq, a fascinating, highly personal journey into the recent history of a war-torn land.

Young Glasgow-based filmmaker Paul Morris presents the World premiere of his micro-budget Hamilton-filmed debut feature, Angry Young Men, a riotous comedy following local young gang, ‘The Bramble Boys’, defending their home turf against rivals. There’s the first big screen outing for Lizzie MacKenzie’s documentary, The Hermit of Treig, a warm and heartfelt portrait of her friend, Ken Smith, who has spent the last four decades living off-grid in a log cabin near Loch Treig, ‘the lonely loch’.

Scottish director Ruth Paxton makes her long-anticipated feature debut with A Banquet, combining family psychodrama with an apocalyptic nightmare as a new widow tries to raise her teenage daughters alone. Martyn Robertson’s thrillingly shot documentary Ride the Wave chronicles the 14-year-old Scottish surfing champion, Ben Larg, as he prepares to surf the one of the biggest and coldest waves on Earth, around County Sligo.

Filmed in Scotland and starring a Scottish cast, Nobody Has to Know, directed by Bouli Lanners, is a touching romance that follows a stroke patient (Lanners) as he exiles himself to a remote Scottish island with amnesia. Can his ex, played by Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones), help him piece together his memory and the secret relationship they had together?

Sheer joy at having audiences back

GFF Co-director Allan Hunter said: "Welcoming audiences old and new to the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival is a source of great joy and not a little relief. I think we have all missed that sense of community and discovery you experience at a festival.

"The team have watched more films than ever to compile a programme rich in its diversity and wonders. There are so many great films to recommend from around the world and I am especially excited by the abundance of Scottish stories and productions that showcase the country’s many shining talents. I can’t wait for people to pick their own favourites."

GFF Co-director Allison Gardner said: "I can’t begin to describe our joy at being able to have our loyal, committed and fun audiences back to the festival. We have all undergone different and difficult times over the last two years and nothing helps us to heal and connect like film. Having audiences in both our festival venues and our partner cinemas across the UK is a source of joy. The team have worked incredibly hard to pull together a unique and wonderful programme to enjoy."

Sambrooke Scott, Head of Audience Development at Screen Scotland, said: "We're thrilled that 2022 marks Glasgow Film Festival’s return to the big screens of the city, giving audiences the opportunity to experience a rich programme of new films and classic cinema from Scotland, the UK and beyond. It's a festival that celebrates creativity and community, one that feels both local and global at the same time. Congratulations to the team on putting together a programme that exemplifies this spirit."

Baillie Annette Christie, Glasgow Life Board Member and Glasgow Councillor for the East Centre (ward 18), said: "Today, Glasgow Film Festival is internationally recognised for the quality and breadth of its programme, which assembles outstanding pieces of work by some of the world’s best film-making talent, and this year’s edition promises to be another scintillating showcase of global cinema. It’s always one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the city’s cultural calendar.

"Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, the hard work of the exceptional Film Festival and Glasgow Film Theatre team has ensured movie fans across the UK can this year safely enjoy an array of modern masterpieces both in-person and online, from the comfort of their home.

"Glasgow’s reputation as a leading cinema city and first-choice filming destination has never been more apparent and it’s a real credit to the city that major international productions are increasingly choosing to locate here. Glasgow Film Festival, GFT and Glasgow Film Office, play an intrinsic role in that success, reinforcing our passion, professionalism and expertise in the broadcast industry."

Ticket Information

Tickets for the Opening Gala (The Outfit), Closing Gala (Murina) and International Women’s Day Gala (Happening) go on sale at 10am on Monday 31 January from GFT Box Office and glasgowfilm.org/festival

FrightFest passes go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 1 February from GFT Box Office and glasgowfilm.org/festival

All other screenings in the full GFF22 programme go on sale at 10am on Wednesday 2 February from GFT Box Office and glasgowfilm.org/festival

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.