11 unmissable films at Glasgow Film Festival 2026

Rose of Nevada

The latest from one-man cinema machine Mark Jenkin (he's director, writer, cinematographer, editor, sound designer and composer here) is an uncanny time-travel drama that sees two fishermen (played by George MacKay and Callum Turner) slip back in time from modern day Cornwall, where their village is in deep economic decline, to the relative salad days of the early 90s. As ever with Jenkin, expect an evocative use of 16mm photography and cutting post-Brexit political discourse. 26 & 27 Feb

Father Mother Sister Brother

Indie legend Jim Jarmusch is back in the anthology mode he used on films like Mystery Train and Night on Earth for this triptych exploring tensions within three families. Expect lots of pregnant pauses and a decidedly bittersweet flavour as each family unit (Tom Waits, Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik in the first story; Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps in the second; Indya Moore, and Luka Sabbat in the third) awkwardly unearths long-buried memories and resentments. 27 & 28 Feb

The Good Boy

A teenage hoodlum (Anson Boon) receives an unconventional form of rehabilitation when he’s kidnapped and imprisoned by a mild-mannered couple (played by powerhouse actors Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough) who claim they want to put the lad back on the straight and narrow. The resulting battle of wills thriller from Polish director Jan Komasa is reportedly strange and deeply compelling, with shades of Stanley Kubrick and Yorgos Lanthimos. 1 & 2 Mar

Kokuho

This operatic epic has been a runaway hit in Japan. It follows Kikuo, the son of a yakuza leader, who trades crime for the delicate art of kabuki, although he finds that both worlds are built on brutal traditions and hierarchies. Spanning five decades, Kokuho isn’t just a deep dive into a fascinating artform, but also a look at Japan’s changing cultural attitudes across a lifetime. 1 & 2 Mar

Our Hero Balthazar

This zeitgeist-tapping black comedy got great reviews out of the Tribeca Film Festival. It follows a New York rich kid (Jaeden Martell) with a talent for crying on demand, which he uses to create social media posts in the wake of a school shooting, bringing him into the orbit of a redneck incel (Asa Butterfield) who claims to be the shooter. This directorial debut from frequent Safdie Brothers collaborator Oscar Boyson is reportedly as brutally funny as it is deeply disturbing. 27 & 28 Feb

Nino

Young Québécois actor Théodore Pellerin has been on the precipice of stardom for a while now, thanks to promising lead performances in films like Solo, Lurker and Genesis. Nino should push him over the edge. Pellerin plays the title character, who discovers he has throat cancer on the eve of turning 29. Pauline Loques’ devastating debut follows him over his birthday weekend as he absorbs the news. The premise suggests a downer, but this is a film celebrating the precious gifts of life. 27 & 28 Feb

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Created by Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, Nirvanna the Band the Show was a mockumentary web series turned TV sitcom about two struggling Toronto musicians (played by Johnson and McCarrol) who, over several seasons, got involved in all sorts of ridiculous publicity stunts in an attempt to achieve their big break. This movie version is reportedly just as hilarious as those small-screen adventures, and they throw in a riff on Back to the Future for good measure. 28 Feb & 1 Mar

Dead Man’s Wire

This is reportedly Gus Van Sant’s best film in years. A dark, high-wire comedy set in 1970s Indianapolis, it follows Bill Skarsgård as Tony, a disgruntled mortgage firm employee who loses it when his boss (Al Pacino) promotes his useless son (Dacre Montgomery) for a job that should rightfully be his. Tony’s solution: kidnap the son at gunpoint. What makes Dead Man’s Wire sing is its aesthetic, with sound and visuals that evoke so many 70s masterpieces (from Dog Day Afternoon to Badlands). 3 & 4 Mar

The Plague

The cruelty of adolescence becomes the stuff of nightmares in Charlie Polinger's debut feature centred on a group of preteen boys at a water polo camp. Everett Blunck plays Ben, the newbie on the team, and we follow him as he tries to be accepted into the pack. Joel Edgerton plays the coach overseeing these kids, but he has no idea that his charges are descending headlong towards Lord of the Flies territory. 6 & 7 Mar

Boorman and the Devil / Megadoc

Do you like docs about genius filmmakers whose wild visions go down disastrously with audiences and critics? If the answer is yes, then you’re in luck, because GFF has two. Boorman and the Devil tells how the great John Boorman’s experimental approach to Exorcist II: The Heretic made it one of the most despised sequels in cinema history; David Kittredge's doc makes a case that Boorman's film deserves a reappraisal. In Megadoc, meanwhile, Mike Figgis goes behind the scenes on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis for a film that shows that the making of that self-financed retrofuturistic folly was just as wacky as what ended up on screen. 6 Mar / 2 & 3 Mar

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Glasgow Film Festival 2026, 25 Feb - 8 Mar