Scottish Film Event Highlights – December 2015

Yes, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will be dominating cinemas from 18 Dec, but it’s not just droids we’re looking for. There are plenty of other great film events on offer this month – and not just Christmas movies

Feature by Jamie Dunn | 27 Nov 2015

Scotish Cinema at Filmhouse


Bill Patterson in Comfort and Joy

Us Scots aren’t great at celebrating our own cinema, so it’s pleasing to see Filmhouse give us all an opportunity over the Christmas period to appreciate some of the best films to emerge from these shores with Scotland Galore! season. How’s this for an embarrassment of riches? Shallow Grave (28&31 Dec); The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil (28 Dec & 1 Jan); The Illusionist (29 Dec & 4 Jan); Local Hero (30 Dec & 2 Jan). Another great, but too rarely seen, Bill Forsyth film, Comfort and Joy, also screens 20 Dec as part of Filmhouse's Christmas programme.

Filmish Christmas


Filmish – Die Hard | credit: Edward Ross

Talking of Filmhouse’s packed Christmas programme, which includes all the Yuletide favourites you’d expect (It’s a Wonderful Life, 18 & 21 Dec; The Muppet Christmas Carol, 18 & 20 Dec) and some you might not (Trading Places, 18 & 21 Dec; The Nightmare Before Christmas, 20 Dec), it’s crowned by a very special screening of Die Hard on 13 Dec. Before John McClean takes on Hans Gruber, the screening will be introduced by Edward Ross, the author of the brilliant Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film – imagine Sight & Sound in the form of a graphic novel. Ross will be around after the screening for a book signing.


 Bill Murray's A Very Murray Christmas: Watch the trailer

 Glasgow Film Festival 2016: Early programme announcements


I Do? season


The Kids are All Right

Those who made it to the excellent first edition of Scottish Queer International Film Festival will be pleased to see that the SQIFF team seem dedicated to providing Scottish audiences with great queer cinema throughout the year, and this is evidenced with I Do?, a season celebrating a year since the Equal Marriage Act passed in Scotland. Highlights include sweet comedy Cloudburst (3 Dec), in which an elderly lesbian couple embark on a road trip to Canada in the hope of tying the knot, Lisa Cholodenko’s whip-smart parenting drama The Kids are All Right (16 Dec) and Hitchcock’s subversive early work The Lodger (6 Dec), programmed for its themes of desire beyond heteronormative relationships. (Screenings noted here are at CCA, Glasgow – go to sqiff.org for full listings.)

Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival


A Whole New World (Rachel Maclean)

Artists’ film gets a showcase at Filmhouse thanks to the inaugural Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival (9-11 Dec). The event takes the form of three eclectic programmes of international shorts over three evenings, with each programme headlined by an award-winning Scotland-based artist (Stina Wirfelt, Torsten Lauschmann and Skinny favourite Rachel Maclean). It’s an excellent opportunity to take a break from conventional cinema.

Who Needs A Heart


Who Needs A Heart

Finally, don't miss the opportunity to see Black Audio Film Collective's Who Needs A Heart at GFT, Glasgow on 6 Dec. Told in a styalistic collage of fragments, the film documents the forgotten history of 60s British Black Power and the story of black revolutionary leader Michael X. Francis McKee, director of the CCA, will be on hand to introduce this important film and put it in context.