First Events For 2024 Glasgow Film Festival Are Announced

Next year, the Glasgow Film Festival will turn 20.  A fantastic achievement  and today the festival has announced the first major events and screenings for its 20th anniversary edition.

All taking place at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT).The legendary special events will return showcasing two films celebrating two landmark years in Glasgow Film’s history.

The GFT was originally called the Cosmo cinema, opened in 1939 and to mark 85 years of one of the city’s cultural gems, movie fans can click their ruby red slippers together three times to be transported to a magical screening of Victor Fleming’s 1939 technicolour masterpiece The Wizard of Oz. GFF will also host a grotesquely glamorous tribute screening to schlock auteur John Waters magnum opus Female Trouble which celebrates its 50th anniversary along with Glasgow Film Theatre which was first established in 1974.

The ever popular free morning retrospective will return for another year. With the Story So Far, a journey through time with 10 classic titles from each anniversary in Glasgow Film’s history. These widely popular morning screenings are free to attend and give audiences access to view undisputed classics on the big screen again. 1939 was not only an iconic year for Glasgow Film but for cinema; retrospectives scheduled to screen from this year are Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Only Angels Have Wings and Wuthering Heights. The festival offers a rare opportunity to see a back catalogue from 1974 including The Godfather Part II, Young Frankenstein and Foxy Brown. To celebrate the inaugural edition of the festival in 2005, the festival will screen Brick, Walk the Line, and Wolf Creek.

Also returning will be the festival’s Country Of Focus strand. Each year the festival shines a light on global cinema, exploring contemporary and re-discovered film and this year the Focus is on Czechia (also known as Czech Republic). Czech, please! includes titles such as Daisies, the once banned radical feminist film from Věra Chytilová. Is There Any Place For Me, Please? a debut feature documentary and UK premiere from Jarmila Štuková showcases an intimate portrayal of one woman navigating life after an acid attack. Other premieres include dystopian sci-fi Restore Point and chilling crime thriller Mr. and Mrs. Stodola. Timely period drama We Have Never Been Modern will inspect gender politics, martial constraints and self-identity. Brothers, Czechia’s official submission to the 2024 Academy Awards for the Best International Film.

Allison Gardner, CEO of Glasgow Film and Director of GFF, said: ‘I am overjoyed to select titles for the 20th edition of the festival alongside a group of programmers with such vibrant and innovative ideas. Each programmer has been able to make their unique stamp on the festival through our popular Special Events, famous Retrospectives and rich Czech titles.’

Tickets for the special events go on sale on Wednesday 13th December  at 1pm from the Glasgow Film Festival website.

The 2024 Audience Award is sponsored by Mubi and is the only award handed out at the festival, given to an outstanding feature film by a first or second time director.

The award is chosen by the festival audiences and the shortlist will be announced with the full programme on Wednesday 24th January with tickets going on sale on Monday  29th January.

This is our local Film Festival and The Peoples Movies will be there, I hope you can us!