GLASGOW Film Festival has announced its jam-packed, star-studded 2019 programme.
Running from 20 February to 3 March, the city-wide celebration of all things film will feature 337 individual screenings, talks and events, 102 UK premieres and 49 Scottish premieres from 54 countries.
Sir Michael Palin and Simon Amstell are amongst the host of celebrities invited to the plethora of screenings on offer.
The Monty Python star will attend the UK premiere of Final Ascent, a new film about the mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, and also discuss his varied career in a special live podcast recording.
The Scottish actress and director Karen Gillan will be in the international premiere of US drama All Creatures Here Below, while Gerard Butler and Peter Mullan will star in the re-telling of the Flannan Isle mystery, The Vanishing.
Stephen Merchant will show his solo feature film directorial debut, Fighting With My Family, a true story about wrestling starring The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), and Florence Pugh.
Other celebrities including Carol Morley, Matt Bomer, Carlos Acosta, Josh O’Connor, Alice Lowe and legendary music video director Lance Bangs will attend the 15th annual festival.
World premiere’s from home-grown talents are also a-plenty.
Do No Harm is director Stephen Bennett’s compelling exploration of the legacy of Scottish-born psychiatrist Dr Ewen Cameron and the experiments that contributed to systems of modern-day torture across the globe.
Returning crowd favourite FrightFest will also offer up two spine-tingling world premieres, with Automata, a bold and original work from Scottish auteur Lawrie Brewster and ‘Downton Abbey meets The Evil Dead’ in Jack McHenry’s pitch-perfect Here Comes Hell!
Theatre director Simon Sharkey will introduce Run Free, the story of his working in a ghetto in Kingston, Jamaica, teaching young boys parkour and physical theatre over a period of four years for the National Theatre of Scotland, Manifesto Jamaica and the British Council.
GFF will host over 100 UK premieres, making Glasgow audiences the first in the country to see this wide selection of new films.
UK premiere highlights also include: Yuli, the dazzling, rags-to-riches life of ballet superstar Carlos Acosta, beautifully captured by director Icíar Bollaín and I, Daniel Blake writer Paul Laverty and Annabel Jankel’s Tell It To The Bees starring Anna Paquin and Holliday Grainger as two young women falling in love and causing scandal in their 1950s Scottish small town.
49 must-see films also make their Scottish debut at this year’s Festival.
Scottish premiere highlights include: US stand-up comedian Bo Burnham’s eagerly awaited directorial debut, Eighth Grade; fellow comic Simon Amstell’s feature directorial debut, the fresh and endearing rom-com Benjamin; Only You, charting a beautiful romance that begins on Hogmanay on the streets of Glasgow, featuring rising stars Josh O’Connor and Laia Costa; Papi Chulo, The Merger, starring top Australian stand-up Damian Callinan as a former professional Aussie Rules footballer returning home to help his hapless local team; and the astonishing immersive documentary about the raw power of water, Aquarela (supported by Creative Scotland), screened on Dolby Atmos at Cineworld for full, jaw-dropping effect.
More information and tickets available here.
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