Glasgow Short Film Festival reveal 2023 programme

We already knew that this year’s Glasgow Short Film Festival was going to get off to a great start with the opening event OMOS, Rhys Hollis's new moving image work paying homage to Scotland’s untold Black history and celebrating Black performance in Scotland. We’re also stoked for the return of Aussie mashup artists Soda Jerk with their blistering Trump-era satire Hello Dankness. But today, the rest of the GSFF programme has been released and it looks to be a doozy. 

A.I., COP26 and a Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca retrospective

First to catch the eye is the programme Rise of the Empathy Machines, which features an eclectic range of films made about, by and in collaboration with artificial intelligence technology. Thankfully it’s not been programmed by ChatGPT, but ace experimental film platform ALT/KINO. We’re also psyched for Welcome to the Multiverse, a late-night screening of the weirdest and wildest world-building animation. After the screening, there’s a live set of audio-visual oddities and dancing with Round Earth Theory.

You’ll also find a programme about journeys to COP26 (Camino to COP26), which includes a communal walk from Rutherglen to Cowcaddens and a well-deserved shared meal at the end of that schlep. The annual retrospective also looks great, with GSFF surveying the work of Brazilian-German duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca – de Burca knows Glasgow well, having studied at the School of Art two decades ago, and will be returning to the city to present his and Wagner's work. 

Guest curators

As ever, GSFF have welcomed some guest curators from home and abroad to collaborate on areas of the lineup. Alchemy Film & Arts present the eclectic programme Islands That Come and Go, while the Scottish Documentary Institute and Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival have joined forces for Spatial Hunger, two programmes that examine violence and trauma on a personal and collective level, through alternative, non-gratuitous and anti-voyeuristic manners of visualisation and storytelling.

There’s also a must-see programme from the Beirut Shorts International Film Festival, who are bringing a collection of work showcasing Lebanese short cinema. They're illuminating the country’s historical, cultural and geographical positioning across two programmes of shorts and a rare live performance from Beirut-based gender-defying queer dancer Khansa.

GSFF's International and Scottish Competitions

Much-loved regular programmes like Scared Shortless (GSFF’s night of horror shorts), and For Shorts & Giggles (their gut-busting comedy shorts lineup) are also back, as are GSFF’s two competitions. The prestigious Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film sees 28 documentary, animation and fiction shorts from all over the world competing – half of them making their UK premiere.

Possibly GSFF’s most lively and anticipated element is its ​​Scottish Short Film Competition. Twenty new Scottish shorts compete, including five world premieres. Plenty of our favourite filmmakers on the short film scene are returning to GSFF with work this year, including previous Best Scottish Short Competition winners like stop-motion magician Ainslie Henderson with his new film Shackle, left-field documentarian Duncan Cowles with Outlets and Zam Salim with One Shot.

Other GSFF regulars with films in this year’s programme include Simone Smith with The Möbius Trip, William Hong-xiao Wei with Embers from Yesterday, Aflame, Rhona Mühlebach with Excitement Is Not Part of My Feeling Repertoire and Jack Goessens with Who I Am Now. We’re also looking forward to new works by artist-filmmakers Henry Coombes and Natasha Thembiso Ruwona.

The full list of the shorts competing in GSFF’s Scottish competition is below:

Excitement Is Not Part Of My Feeling Repertoire (Rhona Mühlebach), A90 (Olivia J. Middleton), Who I Am Now (Jack Goessens), To Do (Saul Pankhurst), 1815 (Neil Boyle), Floored (Fin Bain), Shackle (Ainslie Henderson), The Barber (Dhivya Kate Chetty), Bellsmyre Caledonia (Jack Guariento), Embers from Yesterday, Aflame (William Hong-xiao Wei), Close (Tom Gentle), Family Fugue (George Finlay Ramsay), There's Not Much We Can Do (Erica Monde), The Cities I Live In (Rabie Mustapha), Clean (Miranda Stern), The Möbius Trip (Simone Smith), maud. (Natasha Thembiso Ruwona), One Shot (Zam Salim), Stones Throw From Nowhere (Henry Coombes), Outlets (Duncan Cowles)

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Glasgow Short Film Festival takes place at Glasgow Film Theatre, CCA and Civic House, 22-26 Mar; tickets for all GSFF 2023 events are on sale at glasgowshort.org