Scottish Film Events: November 2023

The autumn film festival calendar is an embarrassment of riches this month with at least half a dozen great festivals taking place. There’s the final weekend of Dundee’s Discovery Film Festival (DCA, until 5 Nov), which serves up a wonderful selection of arthouse films aimed at a younger audience. Collaborative festival CineAstra continues to go great guns with events across Glasgow (until 5 Nov). Scotland Loves Anime (3-5 Nov, GFT; 6-12 Nov, Cameo) is also back with a sharply curated programme of Japanese animation old and new – read Zoe Crombie's full preview here, or in our November issue.

You’ll also find an animation focus at Havana Glasgow Film Festival (15-19 Nov, GFT & CCA), with a programme of Cuban animation shorts spanning from 1966 to 2022 among the lively programme of films, talks and workshops. In Stirling, the Central Scotland Documentary Festival (2-6 Nov, Macrobert Arts Centre) goes from strength to strength with over 30 non-fiction screenings. Choose Irvine Welsh opens the festival, while Paul Sng’s Tish brings it to a close – pick up a copy of the mag for our chat with Sng.

Venture north and you’ll find an eye-wateringly good lineup at the Inverness Film Festival (3-9 Nov, Eden Court). It’s the place to be to see the much-anticipated new films from the likes of Hirokazu Kore-eda (Monster), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Evil Does Not Exist), while wry documentary Loch Ness: They Created a Monster should prove the perfect opener.

The French Film Festival (1 Nov-14 Dec, various venues) is also back, bringing the best of francophone cinema to every corner of Scotland. Palme d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall from Justine Triet and Oscar contender The Taste of Things, starring Juliette Binoche, are among the headline titles. The diverse selection also offers up On the Adamant, the brilliant new film from Nicolas Philibert, and The Animal Kingdom, a wild piece of speculative fiction in which humans are turning into literal animals.

Make time in your schedule, too, for BFI’s lavish season Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell + Pressburger (various dates, until Jan 2024), which has a plethora of screenings and events taking place across Scotland, including at GFT, DCA and Eden Court.

The opportunity to see masterpieces like The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus on the big screen should not be missed, but make sure to also seek out the lesser spotted Powell and Pressburger titles screening, like their debut The Spy in Black or the pair's seriously strange kids’ film The Boy Who Turned Yellow. For a potted history of P+P, listen to the latest episode of The Cineskinny podcast, embedded below (the chat starts at 43:30).