Viggo Mortensen, George Mackay set for Glasgow Film Festival

With just under two weeks to go until Glasgow Film Festival kicks off with neo-noir Love Lies Bleeding, it’s been announced today that the film's talented director Rose Glass will be in town for that sold-out opening gala screening (28 Feb). Glass is no stranger to GFF. She also came to the festival in 2020 with her brilliant debut feature Saint Maud, and is sure to get a warm welcome on her return.

There’s plenty more big-screen talent coming to GFF this year, with the uber-talented George Mackay (1917, Pride) near the top of the list. He was last at the festival in 2020 with the True History of the Kelly Gang, and will be returning for the Scottish premiere of The Beast (7 Mar), an intriguing-looking sci-fi romance from French maverick Bertrand Bonello in which Mackay and co-star Léa Seydoux play doomed lovers across three different time periods.   

Other GFF regulars making a return are the mighty Maxine Peake, attending the UK premiere of the new dystopian sci-fi Woken (3 Mar); Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire, who’s back at GFF for the world premiere of horror Mom, which screens as part of FrightFest (9 Mar); Beats livewire Lorn Macdonald will attend the world premiere of the Glasgow-set Tummy Monster (2 Mar); documentarian Murray Grigor will present the restored version of his rarely-seen 1975 film Big Banana Feet, which follows Billy Connolly on tour in Ireland (3 Mar); and the prolific Ben Wheatley will be around to introduce a 15th-anniversary screening of his debut feature Down Terrace (1 Mar).

Let’s not forget the Lord of the Rings and A History of Violence legend Viggo Mortensen. The Hollywood star will be at GFT with new western The Dead Don’t Hurt (3 Mar), and he’s bringing his Orkney-born co-star Solly Mcleod. Character actor supreme Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone, Hell or High Water) represents the revenge thriller The G (29 Feb), and BAFTA-winning British-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi will be in Glasgow for a Q&A following the UK premiere of her new feature The Teacher (4 Mar). As was previously announced, the Glasgow-born Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald will be attending the festival to do a career retrospective and introduce two films: his new documentary High & Low on fashion icon John Galliano (5 Mar) and the UK premiere of Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger (5 March), which celebrates the films of Macdonald's grandfather Emeric Pressburger and his filmmaking partnership with Michael Powell.

The above is just a taster of the actors and filmmakers who’ve been confirmed as GFF guests. Head to Glasgow Film Festival’s website for a full rundown.