Glasgow Film Festival announces guests for 2025
Actors Tim Roth, Ed Harris and George MacKay, directors John Maclean and Laura Carreira, and Formula One star Damon Hill are just some of the talent coming to Glasgow Film Festival this year
With Glasgow Film Festival only a few weeks away (it returns 26 Feb-9 Mar), the festival is beginning to reveal the guests who’ll be coming to town this year. We already knew that Jessica Lange, one of only a handful of actors to hold the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, Emmy and Tony), was coming to the festival with her new film Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Today we've learned that she’ll be joined by her similarly legendary co-star Ed Harris, whose hefty CV includes The Truman Show, The Abyss and last year's GFF opener Love Lies Bleeding among many others.
On opening night, director John Maclean will be in town to present the world premiere of Tornado alongside three of its stars: Japanese model, musician and actor Kōki, Shogun star Takehiro Hira and legendary English actor Tim Roth. No word yet on Scottish cast member Jack Lowden, though. There’ll also be plenty of people on the red carpet supporting the closing film, the documentary Make It to Munich, including two of its subjects: Scottish teenager Ethan Walker and pioneering Dunblane surgeon Professor Gordon Mackay, both of whom we’re told will be cycling to the GFT for the gala screening. If tuxedos come in lycra versions, we’ll find out. Sticking with sport, Damon Hill will attend the world premiere of Hill, a documentary about the former F1 champion and his father.
Tickets for James McAvoy's In Conversation chat went like hotcakes, but if you missed out, there’s a chance to see McAvoy introduce his breakthrough role in Kevin Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland. There will be a trio of Scottish stars at GFT too for the screening of the first episode of Amazon’s new Glasgow-set show Fear, namely Martin Compston, James Cosmo and Solly McLeod, all former GFF guests. Glasgow actor James McArdle will also be around for the Scottish premiere of his new rom-com, Four Mothers, which was also shot in Glasgow but is set in Dublin.
And is it even a Glasgow Film Festival if George MacKay isn’t in attendance? After coming to GFF last year with The Beast, he’s back again with another intriguing film: the post-apocalyptic musical The End. And in terms of directors heading to GFF, look out for Edinburgh-based Portuguese director Laura Carreira at the Scottish premiere of her devastating drama On Falling, Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari with the Scottish premiere of her Scottish folk horror Harvest, and The Greasy Strangler auteur Jim Hosking for the UK premiere of his new feature Ebony & Ivory.
This is just a handful of the film folk announced to be attending this year, with more names sure to be added as the festival nears. For full info, head to glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival