Glasgow Film Festival announce opening film for 2023

We’re right in the heart of winter, but the silver lining to these dark and bitterly cold months is that Glasgow Film Festival (1-12 Mar) is right around the corner. And today, GFF have announced how they’ll be kicking off proceedings this year. On 1 March, the 2023 festival will open with the UK premiere of the Glasgow-shot Girl, the debut film from rising talent Adura Onashile. 

Based in Glasgow, Onashile is an actor and director best known in the theatre world, where she made a name for herself with roles for the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2016, she wrote and directed her play Expensive Shit at the Edinburgh Fringe, which earned rave reviews and several awards, including a coveted Fringe First. Onashile adapted Expensive Shit for the screen in 2020 with Glasgow production team Barry Crerar, and that short went on to win the Best Scottish Film and Audience Award at the Glasgow Short Film Festival.

Onashile has teamed up again with Barry Crerar for Girl. It’s said to be "an atmospheric and poignant tale of what it takes to escape the legacy of violence and find trust in the future”. GFF describe the plot as follows: "Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and her 11-year-old daughter, Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu), who are trying to build a new life in Glasgow, a city where everything feels strange and hostile. Traumatised by her past, Grace just wants to keep her daughter safe from harm. Ama is told to trust nobody. When Ama makes friends with a classmate, it only adds to Grace’s anxiety and fear that their special bond is under threat."

Glasgow audiences have the chance to see this new homegrown feature on 1 March, when it'll be fresh from its world premiere at the Sundance film festival. Tickets go on sale at noon on Monday 16 January and can be purchased at glasgowfilm.org

Glasgow Film Festival will run from 1 -12 March at Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) and other venues across the city. The full programme will be announced on 25 January