Glasgow Film Festival 2024 Closes

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Glasgow Film Festival 2024 celebrates its bumper 20th edition with over 34,000 admissions, an increase of 4% from 2023

GFF24 opened with the Gala UK premiere of Love Lies Bleeding, which sold out in a record 6 minutes.

GFF Industry attendance increased by 56% as the festival cements its status as a major meeting point for the filmmaking sector, with 650 delegates from across the globe visiting Glasgow.

Glasgow Film Festival will return for its 21st edition 26 February - 9 March 2025.

Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) 2024 wrapped up on Sunday 10 March by celebrating a bumper year of ticket sales and local and international talent.

GFF24 admissions increased to 34,817, a 4% rise from GFF23. The festival also cemented its reputation as a major meeting point for the UK and international filmmaking sector, with 650 delegates from across the globe visiting Glasgow (an increase in 56% from 2023) and over 3000 admissions to its Industry Focus events.

From an unparalleled 397 film submissions, the GFF programme showcased 121 feature films at 241 screenings and events over 12 days at Glasgow Film Theatre, CCA, Cineworld, Glee Club, BAaD, Cottiers Theatre, Civic House, Adelaide Place, Doubletree Hilton and the Arc. GFF also partnered with nine cinemas across the UK, including Barbican, BFI Southbank, Broadway, Chapter Cardiff, DCA, Eden Court, Showroom Sheffield, Watershed and Tyneside for the first UK screenings of GFF premiere La Chimera, a fantastical romance starring Josh O’Connor.

Riddle of Fire, Weston Razooli’s feature debut, was also selected by GFF’s Young Ambassadors for an extra Glasgow screening as part of the GFF Youth Takeover during the festival. Riddle of Fire is a nostalgic charmer that follows a trio of kids as they embark on a fantasy journey in search of a speckled egg once making a deal with their mum over a video game. The screening was free to attend for all GFT 15 - 25 Cinecard holders and included a meal and post-screening film-themed activities.

GFF continued to prioritise making the festival and cinema accessible to the city as a whole, with its daily free morning retrospective screenings, captioned and audio described screenings and Take 2 screenings where each child attending receives a free ticket for themselves and two free tickets for their accompanying adults.

The 20th edition of GFF opened with the UK Premiere of Kristen Stewart’s hotly-anticipated neo noir Love Lies Bleeding, which sold out in a record-breaking 6 minutes, and closed with the gala World premiere of John Archer’s documentary Janey - all while welcoming a host of famous faces onto the red-carpet including Viggo Mortensen, Emily Hampshire, George MacKay, Maxine Peake and Dale Dickey.

The festival celebrated the return of its popular Special Event screenings with two sell-out anniversary showings of The Wizard of Oz, complete with yellow brick road, and John Waters’ Female Trouble with live performances from two of Scotland’s top queer drag acts, Sgairre Wood and Puke. For the first time ever GFF curated some top post-film entertainment at GFF After Hours, including Movie Karaoke, a GFF ceilidh and an International Woman’s Day club night DJ’d by Radio Buena Vida. Dipping into the archives, GFF showcased love is sweet oh! a programme exploring love stories through the lens of Black people and people of colour; What Will The Men Wear? explored the star power of three of Hollywood’s most subversive female stars of the 1930s; Gestures of Memory interrogated and re-imagined archival practice; and Wild Flower, Flaming Star bought rarely-seen gems starring Hollywood’s first Mexican leading lady Dolores del Rio back to the big screen.

Czech cinema old and new were celebrated at this year’s Country Focus, while the festival welcomed a host of international filmmakers including Senegal’s Ramata-Toulaye Sy (Banel & Adama), Canada’s Jonas Chernick (The Burning Season), USA’s Samyuktha Vijayan (Blue Sunshine), Ireland’s Gary Lennon (I Dream in Photos), Sri Lanka’s Ilango Ram (Tentigo) and Italy’s Federico Zampaglione (The Well), joining top UK behind-the-camera talent including Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace), Rose Glass (Love Lies Bleeding), and Kevin Macdonald (High and Low: John Galliano).

The power was in GFF audiences hands as they voted on the prestigious Glasgow Film Festival Audience Award, crowning The Home Game as 2024 winner. The crowd-pleasing underdog Icelandic football documentary sat alongside strong contenders such as Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt and Aylin Tezel’s Isle of Skye-shot romance Falling Into Place yet won by a landslide, netting the highest score in the award’s 10 year history. The GFF Audience Award was established in 2015 and is the only prize decided by GFF audiences. Sponsored this year by MUBI, it gave audiences the chance to vote for their favourite film from a shortlisted group of feature film titles by first or second-time directors. The Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen visited Glasgow Film Festival for the UK premiere of his new film The Dead Don't Hurt and an In Conversation event talking about his five decades-long Hollywood career as an actor and director. Following the sold-out event at Glasgow Film Theatre, three-times Oscar nominee Viggo was presented with the festival's inaugural Cinema City Honorary Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cinema. This new annual award has been launched as part of Glasgow Film’s Year of Celebrations with 2024 marking 85 years since the cinema was built, 50 years since Glasgow Film Theatre was founded and the 20th edition of Glasgow Film Festival.

In the 1930s, Glasgow was home to more cinemas per person than anywhere else in the UK and became affectionately known as the Cinema City. The city’s passion for film has burned brightly ever since, with Glasgow Film Theatre at its heart. Viggo Mortensen was presented with the award by Glasgow Film Festival Director Allison Gardner.

Looking to the future, GFF announced that the festival will return next year, with the 21st edition running from 26 February to 9 March 2025.

What Our Red Carpet Guests said about GFF24

Viggo Mortensen, actor-director-producer of The Dead Don’t Hurt, raved about GFF and the festival hub, Glasgow Film Theatre, saying: “It was the best place I’ve seen my movie and the best place I’ve heard it. I’ve learned that Glasgow is not only a film loving place but a cinema loving place so I’m very happy to have come here and premiered The Dead Don’t Hurt at Glasgow Film Festival.”

Rose Glass, director of Opening Gala Love Lies Bleeding, speaking on the GFF red carpet: “It’s fantastic to be opening [Glasgow Film Festival]. I came here once before with my first film Saint Maud so it’s really cool to be back.”

Janey Godley, subject of Closing Gala documentary Janey, speaking on the GFF red carpet: “[Being at the Glasgow Film Festival feels] unbelievably wonderful. I think this is just a dream [...] To see myself at the GFT is going to be one of the most amazing experiences. Throughout all the badness that’s happened in the past couple of years, to have such uplifting experiences really does help.”

Jonas Chernick, actor-writer-producer of The Burning Season, speaking on the GFF red carpet: ‘I’ve been to festivals all over the world for many, many years and this is my favourite. It’s an incredibly supportive audience. I love engaging with the audience here, the programming team, the staff. It’s a very well-run festival. It’s a great city, the food, the people, what’s not to love about Glasgow?”

Ciaran Lyons, director of Tummy Monster, speaking on the GFF red carpet: “Glasgow Film Festival felt like a natural fit for this film. It’s set in Glasgow, it’s shot in Glasgow, it’s shot with Glasgow talent. I think it’s going to play really well in front of a Glasgow crowd. It’s full of Glasgow humour”.

GFF is one of the leading film festivals in the UK and is run by Glasgow Film, a charity which also runs Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow Film Festival is made possible by support from Screen Scotland, the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding and Glasgow Life.

Glasgow Film Festival will return from 26 February to 9 March 2025 with the full programme revealed in January 2025. A selection of films from GFF24 will screen at GFT throughout 2024 with GFF Surprise Film Drive Away Dolls, plus Disco Boy and Banel & Adama screening this month.

Allison Gardner, CEO of Glasgow Film and Director of GFF, said: “Myself and the whole team at the festival are thrilled with how GFF24 went. From our critically and publicly acclaimed programme highlighting emerging talent to the friendly and warm reception by our wonderful audiences to the talented guests that came to Glasgow from across the world, our 20th edition was a perfect reflection of everything Glasgow Film Festival stands for: Cinema For All. We were particularly delighted to host so many sold out screenings, from our opening film Love Lies Bleeding selling out in a record-breaking 6 minutes, to two packed-out Cinema 1 showings of the new Big Banana Feet restoration and extra screenings of Glasgow filmmaker Ciaran Lyons’ debut Tummy Monster added due to phenomenal demand - Glasgow Film Festival is the film festival for audiences and in 2024 our audience came out in their droves to support their festival.”

Isabel Davis, Executive Director of Screen Scotland, said: “As a major supporter of the festival, Screen Scotland congratulates Allison and the whole festival team for delivering this year's 20th edition of Glasgow Film Festival. Once again, they’ve delivered a rich mix of fantastic films, engaging events, special guests, and industry activity all wrapped up in the unique and welcoming atmosphere they create.

“Every year, the festival brings people together to enjoy the best cinema from Scotland and around the world, and provides filmmakers with valuable opportunities and pathways in the industry. This edition underscores the festival's role in showcasing the vibrant Scottish filmmaking sector, which made it the ideal place to launch our new strategy during the festival. We join in celebrating the amazing milestones achieved with this year’s efforts and continue to support its growth and development.”

Bailie Annette Christie, Chair of Glasgow Life, said: “The excellent audience figures, and number of sell-out events Glasgow Film Festival 2024 achieved, highlight what a resounding success it has been. GFF24’s excellent, expansive programme showcased the very best in world cinema, with a wonderful wealth of contemporary and retrospective screenings across a wide range of genres. The impressive range of premieres featured, as well as the fabulous line-up of global film industry talent attending, attracted film fans from near and far and delighted a broad range of audiences, making this year’s festival very special.

“Festival Director Allison Gardner and her teams deserve huge congratulations; they pulled out all the stops to stage a superb 20th anniversary edition of our much-loved Glasgow Film Festival – further enhancing the annual event’s international reputation, as well as the city’s status as an outstanding destination for great cinema and stand-out cultural events.”

Ben Luxford, BFI’s Director of UK Audiences, said: “A hugely important Festival for Scotland and the city of Glasgow, it is also wonderful to see audiences around the UK connecting with its fantastic programme. Congratulations to the team for another great edition, and as a proud supporter of the Festival, it is wonderful to see it continue to grow and increase its impact with audiences and industry.” 

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