Glasgow Film Festival 2018 to open with all-star animation
The festival will open on 21 February with the UK premiere of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs
An Oscar-nominated director’s new animation is set to open this year’s Glasgow Film Festival.
Organisers have announced the UK premiere of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs will get the city’s fourteenth annual celebration of film underway on 21 February.
Anderson is an acclaimed writer and director, best known for his 2014 work The Grand Budapest Hotel, which also opened the Glasgow Film Festival that year.
Anderson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, Moonrise Kingdom in 2012 and The Grand Budapest Hotel two years later.
He was also nominated for Best Animated Feature for Fantastic Mr. Fox at the 2009 Oscars.
He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director – and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy – for The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014.
Isle of Dogs - a stop-motion film set in a dystopian future Japan - tells the story of 12-year-old Atari Kobayashi, who sets off alone to an island in search of his dog, Spots.
There, with the assistance of a pack of canine friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the land.
The all-star voice cast includes Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson and Scots actress Tilda Swinton to name but a few.
Allan Hunter, Festival Co-director said: “Wes Anderson is one of the most imaginative, beguiling filmmakers working in world cinema and we are thrilled to open GFF 2018 with the UK premiere of his brand new film.
“Four years ago we opened the Festival by booking into The Grand Budapest Hotel. This year we invite audiences to set sail for the Isle Of Dogs. It will be a night to remember and the best possible start to a great Festival.”
Tickets for the Opening Gala go on sale at 10am on Monday 8 January, with the full programme announced on Wednesday 24 January.
Notable guests visiting the festival in recent years have included Richard Gere, Alan Rickman, Joss Whedon, John C Reilly, David Tennant and Peter Capaldi.
The 2017 festival featured the red carpet world premiere of David Tennant’s Mad To Be Normal and logged over 41,000 admissions, cementing its reputation as one of Europe’s major film festivals.