Scottish Film Events: November 2024

Film festivals show no sign of abating. This month there’s the return of Scotland Loves Anime and French Film Festival UK. Add to this pair Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh, which, confusingly, is coming to Glasgow this month with four films at GFT (7-28 Nov). It’s an eclectic quartet, with Hsiao Ya-Chuan’s Old Fox, a wry drama about an 11-year-old from a poor family who has his sense of morality corrupted by his wily landlord, looking like a highlight. The closing night of the London Palestine Film Festival also comes to the GFT with From Ground Zero, a sure-to-be-powerful portmanteau film comprised of 22 short films made in Gaza over the past brutal year (29 Nov).

The legacy of the great filmmaker, artist, set designer and writer Derek Jarman, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1994, is celebrated in exhibition Digging in Another Time: Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature (2 Nov-4 May, The Hunterian, Glasgow). Based on diary entries in the years leading up to Jarman’s death, the exhibition is built around a new display of Jarman’s artworks (a mix of film, painting and photography) alongside pieces by six contemporary artists inspired by Jarman: Andrew Black, Luke Fowler, Jade de Montserrat, Tom Walker, Matthew Arthur Williams and Sarah Wood. Jarman is well known in cinephile circles for his extraordinary run of films in the 70s and 80s, but this exhibition will give a more holistic view of this radical and much-missed artist. 

The spooky season isn’t quite over yet thanks to Samhain Sound, an evening of liminal music, art and film at Civic House (2 Nov). As well as musical performances from Brìghde Chaimbeul and Peaks Duo, the night comes to a close with a screening of F.W. Murnau’s horror classic Nosferatu with a live score from Berlin-based electronic pioneer Gudrun Gut, who will be joined by acclaimed Irish composers Irene Buckley and Linda Buckley.

For film fans, November has become Noirvember, and GFT are marking it with a sparkling season of down-and-dirty film noir made by Columbia Pictures in the 40s and 50s. Gilda (1-7 Nov) and The Big Heat (8-14 Nov) screen alongside the lesser-seen Dead Reckoning (15-18 Nov) and Murder by Contract (22-28 Nov). 

And how about we also claim November as Point Break month, because Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 actioner is getting a wide re-release after being unscreenable in UK cinemas for years thanks to a rights dispute? There are lots of opportunities to see this action masterpiece on screens big and small, but we recommend making it along to GFT’s double bill of Point Break with Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz (10 Nov), which is littered with nods to Bigelow’s film. A genius piece of programming. [Jamie Dunn]