Scottish Film Events: April 2025

The CCA’s winter closure has been a massive blow to Glasgow’s film scene, but with spring arriving its doors are reopening with a film that will knock cinephiles’ socks off: Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker, which hijacks DC Comic IP to tell a dizzyingly inventive trans coming-of-age comedy (1 Apr). The screening will be followed by a pre-recorded chat between Drew and comic book writer Grant Morrison, who has spent much of his career writing for DC. 

CCA also host Horror Minus Horror (10-17 Apr), an intriguing two-night film series pushing at the boundaries of the horror genre. First up, Stephen Karam’s The Humans, an eerie Thanksgiving drama in which a family (featuring Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein and Steven Yeun) have a dinner from hell. Then it’s Andrew Haigh’s devastating 45 Years, a relationship drama where the spectre of a long-dead ex-girlfriend metaphorically haunts a married couple. 

Readers of a certain age who remember the thrill of VHS rental shops should get a nostalgic kick out of Kim’s Video, David Redmon’s documentary about the legendary New York video rental emporium that was a favourite of people like Jim Jarmusch, the Coen Brothers, Chloë Sevigny and Quentin Tarantino. This quirky, affectionate doc takes viewers on a quixotic quest to discover where these videos ended up once Kim’s Video closed its doors in the late 00s. Film exhibitors Cinetopia are taking the film on tour, with screenings at GFT (10 Apr), DCA (25 Apr) and Montrose Playhouse (28 Apr).

To mark Record Store Day on 12 April, GFT are screening three music classics: School of Rock, Almost Famous and Empire Records (the latter in 35mm). GFT also continue their essential Chantal Akerman and Derek Jarman retrospectives into April. Meetings with Anna (6 & 7 Apr), All Night Long (9 & 10 Apr) and the little-screened musical Golden Eighties (12 & 14 Apr) are among the unmissible Akerman screenings, while Jarman fans can see the deeply moving sound piece Blue (13 Apr) and Caravaggio (27 Apr), Jarman’s take on the life of the great Baroque painter.

Talking of great filmmakers, GFT crowns British auteur and food critic Michael Winner their April CineMaster, with a day-long retrospective (think masterpieces like Dirty Weekend, The Sentinel and at least three Death Wish movies) on 1 April.

There’s also the usual mix of great Q&A screenings coming to Scottish cinemas this month. James McArdle comes to GFT with the warm Irish comedy Four Mothers (6 Apr), director Mikko Mäkelä will be at the Cameo to present his queer drama Sebastian (also 6 Apr), and Glasgow-based director Ciaran Lyons screens his low-budget psychological hangout movie Tummy Monster at GFT (1 May).