23 December 2017
Newsdesk
Glasgow’s fourteenth annual celebration of film to showcase fresh new cinema from Ireland and the Baltics
Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi comes to town with electronic pioneers Wrangler for a celebration of the greatest films never made in The Unfilmables
2017 Scottish Album of the Year Award winners Sacred Paws perform live soundtrack to Margaret Salmon’s explosive speedway documentary Mm
The festival’s legendary special event screenings are back, turning top Glasgow club SWG into a massive 80s v 90s school disco with screenings of high school classics Gregory’s Girl and Clueless
Bringing Hollywood’s broodiest Rebel Heroes back to the big screen in a free retrospective of classics starring James Dean, Sidney Poitier and more
UK premieres of Jaak Kilmi's The Dissidents
The boldest and most original filmmaking talent from our neighbours across the sea will be highlighted in Ireland: The Near Shore. With a strong focus on emerging female directors, the strand will host the Scottish premiere of Nora Twomey’s hotly anticipated animated feature The Breadwinner, about a headstrong young girl living in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and the UK premiere of music video director Aoife McArdle’s debut film, the striking coming-of-age tale Kissing Candice. Other highlights include Frank Berry’s award-winning look at teenage life behind bars Michael Inside and Ellen Page in the Scottish premiere of David Freyne’s new twist on the zombie movie The Cured.
Our Pure Baltic strand will host the UK premieres of Jaak Kilmi's The Dissidents, an upbeat comedy about three teenage Estonian boys who escape to Sweden in the 1980's, Aik Karapetian’s Latvian psychological thriller Firstborn and Egle Vertelyte’s Miracle, a dryly funny political critique of post-Communism Lithuania.
The festival’s much-loved morning matinees return with a season dedicated to Hollywood’s broodiest anti-heroes. Everyone’s favourite Rebel Heroes, from a doomed James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause to Sidney Poitier breaking free from the chain gang in The Defiant Ones, via Steve McQueen tearing up the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt and Elvis Presley shaking up his cellblock in Jailhouse Rock, will be returning to the big screen in these free events that are the perfect way to kick start a day at the festival. The full programme for Glasgow Film Festival 2018 is announced on 24th January. Tickets go on sale to GFF members and GFT CineCard holders from 12noon on 25 January and then on general sale from 10am on 29 January.
The Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi (Under The Skin and Jackie original soundtracks), video artist Francesca Levi and electronic pioneers Wrangler (featuring ex-Cabaret Voltaire Stephen Mallinder) perform live in the Scottish premiere of The Unfilmables - a celebration of music, imagination and the greatest movies never made. Sisters Mica and Francesca collaborate on The Colour of Chips, a re-imagining of Sergei Parajanov’s most famous work, The Colour of Pomegranates, which transports the story from Armenia to the north of England, resulting in a lost British-classic-that-never-was.
Wrangler also take cinema to the next level with The Tourist – based upon Claire Noto’s script from the 1970s, long-regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi films never to make it to the big screen, despite the best efforts of Franc Roddam and Francis Ford Coppola. Wrangler have resurrected the script and, along with filmmaker Tash Tung and live visual manipulator Daniel Conway, bring it back to life in provocative and inventive fashion.
2017 Scottish Album of the Year winners Sacred Paws make their soundtracking debut on Glasgow-based artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon’s Mm. Shot on location on 35mm film with the all-male speedway motorcycle team the Berwick Bandits, Mm is an exploration of language, masculinity and racing incorporating the explosive sounds of speedway alongside live music and voice from the post-punk band. To coincide with event, co-produced by Tramway and LUX Scotland, an exhibition of Margaret Salmon’s acclaimed work will run in Tramway’s main gallery from 16 February to 18 March 2018.
Glasgow Film Festival 2018 will also see the return of the hugely popular special event screenings. Previous years have seen audiences escorted by vampire motorcycle cavalcade to a theme park showing of Lost Boys and donning orange jumpsuits to experience cult action movie Con Air in an aircraft hanger outside the city.
For 2018, GFF will turn top club venue SWG3 into the ultimate 80s v 90s school disco. Audiences can iron their best prom dress or dust off that old football kit and choose to watch one of the greatest high school movies of all time - either the much-loved Scottish gem Gregory's Girl or Alicia Silverstone in the endlessly quotable Clueless. Post-film, both sides will come together for a massive school disco-themed party with top DJs spinning favourite dance floor fillers and heartbreakers from across the decades. More special events will be announced along with the full festival programme on 24th January.
COMMENT
ALLAN HUNTER, FESTIVAL CO-DIRECTOR SAID:
“After the roaring success of the Dangerous Dames focus at GFF 2017, we salute cinema’s finest Rebel Heroes in 2018. A celebration of mavericks, misfits and ice-cool dudes, the 2018 retrospective ranges widely from Henry Fonda’s people’s champion in The Grapes Of Wrath to Paul Newman’s defiant convict in Cool Hand Luke. We have films starring Steve McQueen, Sidney Poitier, Elvis Presley, Al Pacino and many more. Once again they are all showing free of charge, allowing everyone access to Glasgow Film Festival 2018”.
ALLISON GARDNER, FESTIVAL CO-DIRECTOR SAID:
“We’re thrilled that GFF will be bringing the hottest filmmaking talent from our neighbours in Ireland to audiences in Glasgow. It’s particularly rewarding to be able to showcase work from new female directors with fresh takes on the universal story of growing up and making your mark on the world”.
SEAN GREENHORN, PROGRAMME MANAGER SAID:
“Glasgow Film Festival is thrilled to be working with some of the leading artists across visual arts and music for these live events as part of our Sound & Vision and Crossing the Line strands. We are delighted to welcome Mica Levi to the festival, whose Oscar-nominated score to Under the Skin beguiled audiences as our 2014 closing gala, and to celebrate Margaret Salmon’s moving image work with a live event and exhibition, after screening her works at previous editions of the festival.”
Pure Baltic:
Firstborn Aik Karapetian (2017)
The Dissidents Jaak Kilmi (2017)
Miracle Egle Vertelyte (2017)
Ireland: The Near Shore:
The Breadwinner Nora Twomey (2017)
The Cured David Freyne (2017)
Kissing Candice Aoife McArdle (2017)
Michael Inside Frank Berry (2017)
Plus more to be announced
Rebel Heroes:
Angels With Dirty Faces Michael Curtiz (1938)
Breathless Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
Bullitt Peter Yates (1968)
Cool Hand Luke Stuart Rosenberg (1967)
The Defiant Ones Stanley Kramer (1958)
Dog Day Afternoon Sidney Lumet (1975)
The Grapes of Wrath John Ford (1940)
Jailhouse Rock Richard Thorpe (1957)
On The Waterfront Elia Kazan (1954)
Rebel Without A Cause Nicholas Ray (1955)
Glasgow Film Festival
The fourteenth annual Glasgow Film Festival will run from 21 February – 4 March 2018. The full programme will be launched on the evening of 24 January, with tickets on sale to GFF members and GFT CineCard holders from 12noon on 25 January and then on general sale from 10am on 29 January. GFF Membership is available to buy now for only £10, offering four days of advance booking, and discounts. See www.glasgowfilm.org/gffmembership for full information. Existing GFT CineCard members will automatically have GFF membership.
Notable guests visiting the festival in recent years have included Richard Gere, Alan Rickman, Joss Whedon, Terry Gilliam, John C Reilly, Saoirse Ronan, Richard Dreyfuss, Jonathan Glazer, Richard Johnson, Gemma Arterton, Ben Wheatley, David Tennant, Cliff Curtis, David Robert Mitchell, Carol Morley, Gemma Jones, Jason Priestley, Neil Jordan, agnés b., Armando Iannucci, Jack O’Connell, Dexter Fletcher, Peter Mullan, George Sluizier, Peter Capaldi, Ty West, Richard Ayoade, Eli Roth and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. 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.
