Glasgow Film Festival announces guests for 2026

It was only last year that James McAvoy attended Glasgow Film Festival and received the festival’s Cinema City Award. It’s been confirmed today that he’ll be back on 8 March to walk the red carpet for the UK premiere of his directorial debut, California Schemin'. He’ll be joined by three actors from the film: Samuel Bottomley, Séamus McLean Ross and Lucy Halliday.

Another filmmaker joining McAvoy in Glasgow is Cornish auteur Mark Jenkin, the talented filmmaker behind Bait and Enys Men. He'll be in town to present his latest film, Rose of Nevada. Alice Winocour helped open GFF in 2020 with Proxima; she’s back this year with her new film, the Angelina Jolie-starring Couture. Other filmmakers returning to GFF include Marc Evans with the world premiere of his Welsh-language drama Effi o Blaenau, and Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, who visited the fest just last year with The Extraordinary Miss Flowers and will attend for the Scottish premiere of Broken English.

In terms of local filmmaking talent, expect the Musselburgh-based Chilean-Belgian film director Felipe Bustos Sierra to present the opening film Everybody to Kenmure Street alongside several of the people who appear in the film, including human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar and Glasgow Councillor Roza Salih, who co-founded the Glasgow Girls in 2005 at the age of 15. Ben McQuaid and Nathan McQuaid, 22-year-old twins from Glasgow, will present the world premiere of Welcome to G-Town, their micro-budget horror sci-fi. And New York-based, Edinburgh-raised filmmaker Sean Dunn will be in Glasgow for the UK premiere of his dark comedy The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford. 

In terms of actors, there’s Glee alumnus Chris Colfer and Hollywood veteran Alice Krige attending for horror The Restoration at Grayson Manor. Sixteen-year-old Woody Norman, best known for his lead role opposite Joaquin Phoenix in C'mon C'mon, will walk the red carpet for the UK premiere of My Father’s Island, and comedian and actor Ronni Ancona will be here for the premiere of Think of England alongside co-star Natalie Quarry. 

Today's talent announcement suggests it will be a slightly more low-key GFF in terms of famous faces on the red carpet, although expect more guests to be added to this list by the time the festival kicks off on Wednesday 25 February. And remember, some of GFF's biggest names have a tendency to turn up with little fanfare – just look at last year's surprise visit by Toni Collette for a special screening of Muriel's Wedding.

For the full list of guests attending GFF 2026 head to glasgowfilmfest.org/home