Glasgow Film Festival reveal special events and Austria focus for 2025

More programme details from Glasgow Film Festival have emerged, with next year’s Country Focus and Special Events revealed. Plus Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced its 2025 dates

Article by Jamie Dunn | 11 Dec 2024
  • The Craft

As we enter the darkest, coldest months of the year, we can look forward to a bit of light at the end of the tunnel with Glasgow Film Festival 2025 (26 Feb-9 Mar) very much in our sights. And it wouldn’t be GFF without its fabled Special Events – those screenings where audiences are taken to non-cinema spaces around town that perfectly fit the film in question. Previous special screenings have included The Thing on a ski slope, The Warriors within Glasgow’s subway, and Con Air in an aeroplane hanger. Unforgettable viewing experiences with one-of-a-kind atmospheres, never to be repeated.

Today’s announcement reveals that GFF has cooked up something similarly delicious for next year: it is marking the 25th anniversary of​​​​​​ Coyote Ugly, David McNally’s film about a singer who starts working in a raucous country and western bar in New York, by screening it at Glasgow’s very own raucous country and western bar: The Grand Ole Opry. Other films getting the special screening treatment at GFF25 are the brilliantly brash Aussie romcom Muriel’s Wedding and the cult 90s teen horror The Craft, both of which will be screening in a former church: ​​Cottiers in Glasgow’s West End. 

GFT to host Scottish Premiere of On Falling

Still from On Falling

As well as celebrating great films in unusual locations, GFF also love to celebrate Scottish cinema, and one of the most anticipated Scottish films of 2025 has got to be On Falling, the first feature film from talented Scotland-based Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira. We’ve been a big fan of Carreira’s short films for years, and very much looking forward to this debut feature, which takes an honest and raw look at the loneliness and instability of a young Portuguese woman who’s stuck working within the UK’s gig economy. This Scottish premiere should be a great homecoming for Carreira’s film, which has garnered much acclaim on its 2024 festival run, including awards for best director at San Sebastian and best first feature at London Film Festival.

As well as hosting the Scottish premiere, GFF will be screening On Falling at cinemas across the UK, with the full list of venues to be announced in January. Incidentally, the last film to be chosen for GFF’s UK-wide screenings was Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, which ended near the top of many best films of the year list – The Skinny’s included – so GFF's programmers clearly have great taste.

Glasgow Film Festival's Country Focus and After Hours strands

Also at GFF25 will be 'From the Heart of Europe', a season celebrating the cinema of Austria. Two films from Michael Haneke – The Piano Teacher (2001) and Caché (2005) – feature in the strand, along with new work, including Josef Hader’s tragicomedy Andrea Gets a Divorce, Christoph Schwarz’s satirical mockumentary Piggy Bank and Bernhard Wenger’s absurdist Peacock, which has been compared to the films of Yorgos Lanthimos.

If you attended GFF last year you’ll know that one of the most enjoyable new additions to the programme was After Hours, a series of late-night events that included a ceilidh, a film quiz and a night of karaoke where every song must have appeared in a movie. After Hours was such a success that it’s back! So whatever your go-to music songs are – be it Maniac from Flashdance, Wind Beneath My Wings from Beaches or I’m Just Ken from Barbie – this is your cue to get practising in the shower.

Coen Brothers season to replace GFT's Scorsese of the Month

Over the last two years at GFT, one of the absolute joys of their monthly programme was their Scorsese of the Month. The cinema screened well over two dozen of Martin Scorsese’s films in that time, and not just the often-screened masterpieces like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Taxi Driver. They dug deep into his filmography, with rare showings of his fantastic concert films (The Last Waltz, The Rolling Thunder Revue) and his many underappreciated, lesser-screened gems (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The King of Comedy, The Age of Innocence, The Colour of Money, Cape Fear...). There aren’t too many contemporary filmmakers who could sustain such a run, but GFT have come up with a great replacement: the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. 

The Coen Brothers of the Month season will kick off at GFF25 with their eighth feature O Brother, Where Art Thou? and one of their films will be screened every month at GFT until the cinema runs out of Coen Brothers films.

Edinburgh Film Festival returns in August 2025

Switching to the east coast, Edinburgh International Film Festival has confirmed its dates for next year, and it looks like they’re sticking with their slot in the ever-hectic August schedule alongside the other big Edinburgh arts festivals. Next year’s EIFF takes place across six days, from 14 to 20 August, with film submissions opening on 6 January.

“We are delighted to announce our next edition in August 2025 and cannot wait to see the submissions that will come our way for potential selection in the new year,” said EIFF’s director Paul Ridd. “For my team there is no feeling greater than discovering something truly great for audiences, and knowing so many of our 2024 films have had lives well beyond our Festival is truly invigorating. Bring it on again!”


Glasgow Film Festival 2025 runs 26 Feb-9 Mar; glasgowfilm.org
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 runs 14-20 Aug; edfilmfest.org