Scottish Film Events & Streaming Highlights: March 2020

Scottish cinemas are bursting at the seams in March. The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (18-22 Mar) turns ten and brings a tasty lineup to its one of a kind venue: Bo'ness Hippodrome. Highlights include swashbuckling hunk Douglas Fairbanks as Zorro; Paul McGann providing a live narration to Marcel L’Herbier’s poetic L’Homme du Large; and Mark Kermode’s skiffle outfit the Dodge Brothers scoring FW Murnau's symphonic City Girl. The festival kicks off in perfect Keystone Cops fashion, meanwhile, with a massive custard pie fight.

No sooner has Glasgow Film Festival come to a close, its hip little sister, Glasgow Short Film Festival (18-22 Mar), pops up. Once again, the programme is *chef’s kiss*. Extensive strand Barbed Wire Love: Artists and their North of Ireland Troubles looks like a must-attend, as does expanded cinema event Operation Jane Walk Live, a psychogeographic tour of post-apocalyptic New York via a shoot-em-up video game. Also be sure to make The Skinny’s Best of the Decade programme (21 Mar), featuring some of our fave Scottish shorts of the last ten years.

Filmhouse’s March programme is wild too. There’s the return of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival (6-12 Mar) and Filmosophy (beginning 25 Mar), the film season with a philosophical bent. We also love the look of Happiness is a State of Mind: Joy and Despair in Japanese Cinema (13-19 Mar), which features And Your Bird Can Sing, one of the finest films from last year to go unreleased in the UK. 

Innis & Gunn, meanwhile, are Filmhouse's latest House Guests, serving up modern classics like The Big Lebowski and The Grand Budapest Hotel alongside a rare 35mm screening of cult 90s teen drama Empire Records and, most importantly, some free beers. Add in some Uncanny Valley cult items (Killer Klowns from Outer Space, 6 Mar; Angel Heart, 20 Mar) and an Alejandro Jodorowsky season (10 Mar-2 Apr) and you’ve a very busy month for Edinburgher film nuts.

GFT’s brochure is similarly stacked. Highlights include a visit from Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe with his gorgeous Fire Will Come (26 Mar); a Fellini retrospective (10 Mar-1 Apr); and a couple of ace Mother’s Day weekend screenings – one appropriate (Little Women, 22 Mar), the other less so (Carrie, 20 Mar).

Streaming Highlights: March 2020

The Twilight Zone
Cross over to another dimension with Jordan Peele’s retooling of Rod Sterling’s seminal series. Every Wed, Syfy UK

Noughts & Crosses
Six-parter based on Malorie Blackman's cult dystopian novel about two lovers divided by the colour of their skin. From 5 Mar, BBC iPlayer

Lost Girls
The brilliant Amy Ryan leads this real-life drama about the Long Island killer and the bias of the police investigating the case. 13 Mar, Netflix

Feel Good
We’ve high hopes for this semi-autobiographical romantic comedy series from ace stand-up Mae Martin. From 19 Mar, Channel 4 (UK) and Netflix (worldwide)

The Mandalorian
It’s finally your chance to (legally) see the adventures of Werner Herzog and his son, Baby Yoda, or something. 24 Mar, Disney+