Glasgow Film Festival reveals its 2025 programme
The 21st edition of GFF returns with a programme rich with Scottish talent this year, including the world premiere of John Maclean’s second feature and an on-stage talk with James McAvoy
Glasgow Film Festival, Scotland’s largest celebration of film, is currently dusting off its red carpet and step-and-repeat banner hoardings as it gears up for the 21st edition of the festival from 26 February to 9 March – the programme details for which have been announced today. Glasgow Film Festival has always been a huge champion of local filmmaking talent and that seems to be particularly the case this year with a rich collection of Scottish films prominent in the programme.
Opening and Closing Galas
The festival kicks off with one of those Scottish productions and a huge coup: they’ve secured the world premiere of the second film from John Maclean, who burst on to the filmmaking scene in 2015 with Slow West. Titled Tornado, Maclean's new film is set amid the pitiless landscape of Britain in the late 18th century, and concerns a young Japanese woman (played by model-songwriter Koki) and her father (played by Takehiro Hira), who are travelling town-to-town with their puppet Samurai show when their life is altered forever by a gang of ruthless criminals (Tim Roth and Jack Lowden, who play father and son, are among the gang's members). Maclean, a former member of The Beta Band, shot Tornado in Scotland last year, teaming up again with his Slow West cinematographer Robbie Ryan. GFF director Allison Gardner promised much blood and violence from this gripping revenge saga which she called “visceral and beautiful” at the press launch.
At the other end of the filmmaking scale is Martyn Robertson’s Make It to Munich. Made on a micro-budget, it’s a documentary that follows Scottish teenager Ethan Walker whose dream of becoming a professional footballer is dashed thanks to injuries he sustained in a horrific car crash. Robertson’s film follows Walker when he embarks on an epic bike journey, cycling from Hampden to Munich for Scotland’s opening match against Germany in Euro 2024, just nine months after his accident. Robertson scored a hit at GFF a few years ago with the bittersweet surfing doc Ride the Waves, so this closing gala should prove a fine homecoming.
As well as being exciting bookends to the festival, both films should give a fascinating snapshot of what’s possible in Scottish cinema right now at different levels of funding.
More Scottish Talent
Another anticipated film that shot in Scotland last year is James McAvoy’s debut California Schemin', the true story about two chancers from Dundee who convinced the music industry they were American rappers. There’s no release date for California Schemin' as yet, but you can pick McAvoy’s brains about it at an In Conversation event, where the Glasgow actor will be discussing his entire career, from period dramas like The Last King of Scotland and Atonement to Hollywood spectacles like X-Men: First Class and Split.
Other Scottish highlights include On Falling, the brilliant debut film from Edinburgh-based Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carriera, which concerns the day-to-day struggles of a young woman working in an Amazon-like warehouse in Edinburgh; the Scottish folk horror Harvest, which was shot on location in Argyllshire; and the Glasgow-shot Irish comedy Four Mothers (where Glasgow stands in for Dublin), which is the first major lead film role for Scottish actor James McArdle, who plays a queer Irish novelist whose life revolves around taking care of his 81-year-old mother. There’s also a chance to see some episodes of Fear, a new drama starring Martin Compston and Anjli Mohindra as a couple who move from London to Glasgow’s West End looking for a better quality of life but their dream turns sour when they meet their new neighbours. Solly Macleod and James Cosmo also star in Fear, which is released on Prime Video later in the year.
The Best of Hollywood, Arthouse and World Cinema
Of course, GFF also has plenty of international talent in the programme, and they don’t come much bigger than two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange. Lange will be in town to do an In Person interview, talking through her storied Hollywood career in classics like Tootsie, Rob Roy, Cape Fear and All that Jazz and her recent success in television (American Horror Story; Feud). I also hope the conversation makes space for some of Lange’s more eccentric and little-seen films, like the glorious Men Don’t Leave. Lange is also in town to present her new film, a big-screen adaptation of the classic Eugene O’Neill play Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Lange is perfectly cast as Mary, the troubled matriarch of the Tyrone family, while Ed Harris plays her domineering husband, James, and Ben Foster and Colin Morgan play the wayward sons.
The End
Another big arthouse title to catch our eye is The End, Joshua Oppenheimer’s apocalyptic musical starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon and George Mackay. The prolific Nicolas Cage is back with the wild-sounding The Surfer, a trippy psychological thriller in which a mild-mannered surfer dad goes to dark places when he’s bullied by some obnoxious Australians who don’t take kindly to tourists visiting their local beach. We’ve also heard good things about the New Zealand ghost story Went Up the Hill, which stars Dacre Montgomery and Vicky Krieps and is directed by Samuel Van Grinsven, who made a splash back in 2019 with his debut, the daring queer thriller Sequin in a Blue Room.
Fancy seeing two of the best actors in the world take on Homer? That’s what’s on offer in The Return, a new version of The Odyssey that reunites The English Patient stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Talented Argentinian director Luis Ortega follows up his queer crime film El Angel with the surreal comedy-thriller The Jockey, which follows an equestrian star who discovers his feminine side after a devastating accident at the racetrack. Daniela Forever also sounds intriguing: it stars Henry Golding as a bereaved man who enrols in a clinical trial for a drug that allows him to reunite with his lost lover. The blistering Baby Assassins films have been a fixture at GFF over the last few years, and fans will be pleased to know that the third film in the Japanese series, Nice Days, which sees the freelance killers attempt to take a holiday, makes it into the programme too.
Music Themed Films
Peaches Goes Bananas
There are a few great-looking music-themed films in the programme. Look out for Peaches Goes Bananas, an intimate documentary following Peaches over 17 years, where we see the much-loved singer both as a larger-than-life stage performer and during her cherished quiet life. There’s also Desire: The Carl Craig Story, which delves into Black American music history through the story of the Detroit techno legend. And for something a bit more out there there’s Ebony & Ivory, a bonkers revisionist comedy that imagines the meeting between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder ahead of their recording of the eponymous duet. Directed by The Greasy Strangler auteur Jim Hosking, your standard musical biopic this is not.
MUBI Audience Award
GFF’s audience award returns, once again sponsored by MUBI. Made up exclusively of first and second-time directors, it’s a great opportunity to discover exciting new voices in film and as ever, its ten features are an eclectic bunch. One title that jumps out at us is German comedy Two to One, which follows a trio of friends as they hatch a get-rich-quick scheme upon finding a trove of soon-to-be worthless banknotes (Sandra Hüller is one of the pals). Crispin Glover continues to be one of the most original actors working so we’re intrigued by Mr. K, described as a darkly comedic mindbender starring Glover as a magician who checks into a strange and decaying hotel full of odd residents. And robbery-gone-wrong road-trip Silver Star, which sounds a bit like an all-female Bonnie and Clyde, also looks promising, but as ever the joys of this strand is discovery, so feel free to dive in blind.
Mai Zetterling retrospective
The main retrospective this year is dedicated to Sweden-born actor and director Mai Zetterling and the programme is split across her acting and directing work. In the former camp are films like the little-seen British noir Blackmailed, co-starring Dirk Bogarde, and the moody thriller The Man Who Finally Died, which also features Peter Cushing and Stanley Baker. Among Zetterling’s directing work being screened is Loving Couples, a sexually frank feminist drama that proved too hot for Cannes in 1964 (the town's mayor reportedly banned its saucy poster from the Croisette), and Scrubbers, a 1982 drama set at a British reform school for girls that sounds very much like a gender-switched Scum -- Scrubbers is even more intriguing for featuring a very young Kathy Burke. This retrospective is a great opportunity to discover an undersung voice in British cinema.
The above is just a snapshot of the 13 World and European premieres, 67 UK premieres and 12 Scottish premieres from 39 countries coming to GFF. There’s also the daily free retrospective and an Austrian focus, along with some fun-looking pop-up screenings (Coyote Ugly at the Grand Ole Opry anyone?); these were announced last year and are discussed in more detail here.
Allison Gardner's final edition
This edition of GFF is also notable because it’ll be the last one helmed by director Allison Gardner, who’s retiring later in 2025. To say it’s hard to imagine the festival without her straight-talking introductions and cutting wit is an understatement. A massive part of what makes GFF so special is it’s a film festival completely without pretensions that truly aims to welcome everyone in, and a big element of this has been Gardner’s gregarious presence in the GFT foyer, casually chatting to punters and filmmakers between running to introduce screenings, creating an atmosphere that’s a million miles away from other festivals whose organisers seem to be more at home behind the velvet ropes of their VIP areas rather than rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi. At GFF there’s never been those velvet ropes, and hopefully whoever takes the reins keeps true to this cinema-for-all ethos.
“I cannot begin to say how excited I am by the brilliant programme we have curated,” says Gardner. “The breadth of films on offer genuinely has something for everyone. I shall be sad that this is my last festival as I’ve had so many magical moments over the years, but I know the great work we have done will ensure that audiences, filmmakers and industry colleagues will continue to support what I consider to be the best film festival in the world.”
Tickets for Opening and Closing Galas go on sale at 10am on 22 Jan. Tickets for the full programme go on sale to GFT Cinecard holders at 10am on 23 Jan and on general public sale at 10am on 27 Jan. Tickets on sale from glasgowfilm.org and the GFT Box Office