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PRESS RELEASE
Glasgow Film Festival 2011
17–27 February
The Glasgow Film Festival returns for it’s seventh year with a programme that
pays homage to established favourites while brandishing a cutting edge.
Next month the Glasgow Film Festival 2011 descends on fifteen venues
across the city from 17–27 February. Offering over 250 films, special
events and unique experiences, the Festival is now a magnet for
thousands of cinemagoers and film lovers from all around the country –
and right around the corner.
Funded by the Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau,
Creative Scotland and EventScotland, Festival Director Allison Gardner says:
“We have always pledged to create a Festival that truly offers something for
all tastes and this year we have achieved that on an even greater scale.
“Glaswegian graphic novel king Mark Millar, writer of Kick-Ass and winner of a
Stan Lee award has joined us to curate a wonderful programme celebrating
Scotland's vital role in the world of comics, gaming and superheroes. There’s
a fantastic selection of music events curated by The Arches that allow
audiences to dive in and experience something new – quite literally, in the
case of Wet Sounds, which is a cinematic experience for the ears at a local
swimming pool!
“The programme runs from mainstream to arthouse, vintage to futuristic and
we have maintained affordable prices that make the Glasgow Film Festival
accessible to all pockets.”
Scott Taylor, Chief Executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, says: “We
are delighted to support the Glasgow Film Festival. Now in its seventh year,
the Festival continues to reinforce its reputation as the fastest growing film
event in the UK and a key event in the city’s cultural calendar. Glasgow Film
Festival captures the imaginations of local, national and international filmgoers and in doing so highlights Glasgow’s style credentials as well as its
cutting-edge arts and culture scene.”
Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). A company limited by guarantee,
registered in Scotland No. 97369 with its registered office at 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB. GFT is registered as
a charity (No SC005932) with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
The Festival will open on Thursday 17 February with the UK gala
premiere of François Ozon's crowd-pleasing comedy Potiche starring
Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. Set in small-town France in the
1970s, the film is pure delight, combining hilarious farce with withering social
commentary. Catherine Deneuve has one of the best roles of her recent
career as a trophy wife in a period of rampant chauvinism who throws off the
shackles of domestic servitude to assert her independence.
The closing gala on Sunday 27 February is the UK premiere of The Eagle
from Oscar-winning, Glasgow-born director Kevin Macdonald. Inspired
by the classic Rosemary Sutcliff novel The Eagle of the Ninth, a young
Roman centurion ventures beyond Hadrian's Wall to discover the fate of the
lost Ninth Legion and restore honour to his family name. A thrilling adventure,
its all-star cast includes Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland,
Mark Strong, Tahar Ramin and Douglas Henshall.
David Mackenzie's eagerly-awaited romantic comedy You Instead is also
receiving its WORLD PREMIERE at the Festival. Filmed in a revolutionary
style over a mere five days – in real time – at T in the Park 2010, the central
story of the film is a hilarious, free-wheeling rock ‘n’ roll love story between the
lead singers of two feuding bands who find themselves handcuffed together
for the entire festival where they’re both due to perform. Perfectly capturing
the thrill, the energy and the passion, not to mention the unpredictability of
sharing a weekend of music, friendship and good times with 85,000 people in
a field, You Instead is also a celebration of our love affair with music. The
impressive cast includes Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Ruta Gedmintas,
Sophie Wu, Gavin Mitchell and Alastair Mackenzie.
The Festival is excited to announce a new exciting strand ‘Superheroes in
Glasgow’. The supremacy of Scottish artists in the word of comics and
graphic novels is world renowned. Local hero Mark Millar joined the GFF
2011 team to curate a special season of films and events that celebrate the
vibrant Scottish scene. He presents, alongside other special guests, a series
of ‘access the industry’ events. There will be filmic adaptations of new stories
and old classics, including a rare screening of Richard Donner's cut of
Superman ll (1980) with previously unseen footage of Marlon Brando.
Films receiving their UK premiere at the Festival include Island, an adaptation
of the Jane Rogers novel set in the Hebrides; FrightFest attraction Hobo with
a Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer; the breezy romantic comedy First Night with
Richard E Grant and Sarah Brightman; and superhero saga Griff the Invisible
starring True Blood's Ryan Kwanten.
Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). A company limited by guarantee,
registered in Scotland No. 97369 with its registered office at 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB. GFT is registered as
a charity (No SC005932) with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
The Festival will be supported for the first time this year by EventScotland, the
national events agency through their International Events Programme. Paul
Bush OBE, Chief Operating Officer for EventScotland says: “We are delighted
to be supporting the Glasgow Film Festival in 2011 and see this as one of the
flagship cultural events of the year ahead. The funding supports the UK and
international outreach of the marketing activity and media exposure to help
attract more visitors to the Festival, which in turn will generate a bigger
economic impact for Glasgow and Scotland.”
Each year the Festival shines a spotlight on the cinema of a particular
country. In 2011 the focus falls on India. The high profile Commonwealth
Games in Delhi and the prospect of a thrilling 2014 Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow have only served to increase the friendly cultural and commercial
ties between the two countries. Beyond Bollywood is a celebration of the
remarkable flourishing of Indian independent cinema in recent years.
“British cinema-goers rarely get the chance to see a wide range of Indian
cinema and so we wanted to create an event that celebrated some of the new
names and talents working outwith the traditional Bollywood productions,”
explains Festival Co-director Allan Hunter. “Beyond Bollywood will open
with the UK premiere of Road, Movie, a real charmer of a road film that
has earned comparisons with Cinema Paradiso. We hope that director
Dev Benegal will be able to join us for the premiere.
“We also hope audiences embrace the chance to see this special selection of
new films, specially restored classics and documentaries and would like to
thank Mr Monir Mohammed of Mother India restaurant for his generous
sponsorship of Beyond Bollywood, which further secured a New Arts
Sponsorship Grant supported by the Scottish Government in conjunction with
Arts & Business Scotland.”
GFF 2011’s selection of international films include the finest prize-winners
from the year's top film festivals, top box-office hits and the cream of the 2011
foreign-language Oscar contenders. Highlights here include Cannes Best
Actor winner Elio Germano in Our Life (La Nostra Vita), Cannes Jury prizewinner A Screaming Man from Chad, Cannes Best Screenplay winner Poetry
from Japan, Venice Best Actor winner Vincent Gallo in Essential Killing,
Venice Best Actress winner Ariane Labed in Attenberg, Berlin Best Actor
winners Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis in How I Ended the Summer,
Canadian Oscar contender Incendies, gorgeous martial arts mystery
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and French box-office
sensation Little White Lies from actor/director Guillaume Canet.
Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). A company limited by guarantee,
registered in Scotland No. 97369 with its registered office at 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB. GFT is registered as
a charity (No SC005932) with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
A fruitful collaboration with Glasgow Caledonian University has produced
mini-season Fashion in Film; prepare yourself for a mix of design and decks
from Scots musician designer Pam Hogg, a documentary on Japanese art
scene sensation Pyuupiru followed by a multimedia fashion show, and a
revisit to the Studio 54 scene in documentary Ultrasuede: In Search of
Halston.
Glasgow Music and Film Festival, the GFF’s mini-festival which is
programmed in collaboration with The Arches, promises stunning sensory
mixes as Italian rock giants and legendary creators of horror film soundtracks
Goblin play live and 65daysofstatic present a specially-commissioned
original 90-minute score for Douglas Trumbull’s science fiction classic Silent
Running. The strand also features screenings of Swedish radical musical
Sound of Noise and Danny O’Connor’s documentary of the rise and fall of “the
UK’s most inspired and dissolute label” – Upside Down: The Creation
Records Story.
Muvizu presents Glasgow Youth Film Festival (6–16 February) kicks off
with Simon Pegg and Nick Frosts’ sci-fi geek comedy Paul and maintains that
level of excellence with loads of international films, special guests and
workshops on topics ranging from breakdancing to scriptwriting.
Muvizu's first time sponsorship of GYFF has secured a New Arts Sponsorship
Grant supported by the Scottish Government in conjunction with Arts &
Business Scotland. In addition the Festival would like to thank the many GFT
donors, including GFT staff, board members and film-goers, who supported
GYFF through the Big Arts Give at Christmas which received match funding
from Arts & Business.
This year’s Glasgow Short Film Festival (18–20 February) returns for a
feverish fourth year with a hothouse weekender of unique screenings and
workshops devoted to short but perfectly proportioned movies. This year the
Festival is devoted to director Jafar Panahi who has just been sentenced to a
term of imprisonment by the Iranian government. The Festival would like to
thank Creative Scotland who support the Glasgow Short Film Festival with
investment from the Audience Development Fund.
An eclectic range of documentaries includes the acclaimed Finnish awardwinning Steam of Life, Jennifer Stoddard's One Thousand Pictures, Werner
Herzog's amazing Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D and The Big Uneasy in
which comedy performer and concerned citizen Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap,
The Simpsons) exposes the shameful failings around the handling of
Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). A company limited by guarantee,
registered in Scotland No. 97369 with its registered office at 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB. GFT is registered as
a charity (No SC005932) with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
Hurricane Katrina.
The main Festival retrospective in 2011 is devoted to Meryl Streep,
universally admired as one of the finest film performers of the past thirty
years. The nine-film retrospective includes Streep's Oscar-winning
performances in Kramer vs Kramer (1979) and Sophie's Choice (1982)
alongside a range of modern classics that includes The French Lieutenant's
Woman (1981), Out of Africa (1985) and The Bridges of Madison County
(1995).
The Festival will also celebrate the centenary of the birth of Ginger Rogers
with a mini-retrospective that includes Swing Time (1936) with Fred Astaire
and her Oscar-winning role in Kitty Foyle (1940). The centenary of the birth of
Vincent Price is marked with a very special, late-night screening of The
Tingler (1959) introduced by master showman Bruce Goldstein.
Out of the Past features an extended programme of restorations and
renovations designed to bring iconic movies back to their true home on the big
screen. 2011 treats include a 50th anniversary screening of the landmark,
Oscar-winning musical West Side Story (1961), a 60th anniversary
screening of the thrilling adventure yarn The African Queen (1951) with
Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, the extended director's cut of
Volker Schlondorff's The Tin Drum (1979) and the restored David Bowie
classic The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).
Last year’s inaugural Glasgow Film Festival Margaret Tait Award was won
by Torsten Lauschmann who will be exhibiting his work at a special event at
GFF 2011. The Festival is also delighted to announce an open call for this
year’s nominations and to express thanks to Creative Scotland and LUX.
Among the many guests scheduled to attend the Festival will be Ken
Loach and his son the film director Jim Loach, comic book artist Dave
Gibbons, filmmakers Miranda Pennell and Joanna Hogg and Glasgowborn Iain Smith, one of the greatest producers to come from Scotland with
an extraordinary career that stretches from Chariots of Fire (1981) and Local
Hero (1983) to Alexander (2004), Children of Men (2006), Wanted (2008) and
The A-Team (2010). “We are thrilled to welcome Iain Smith back to the
Festival to discuss a career of truly international significance,” says Allan
Hunter.
“We look forward to announcing further special guests and appearances in
the run up to the Festival's opening night on Thursday 17 February and to a
hugely successful 2011 Festival experience.”
ENDS
Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). A company limited by guarantee,
registered in Scotland No. 97369 with its registered office at 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB. GFT is registered as
a charity (No SC005932) with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
Notes to editors:
Glasgow Film Festival tickets are on sale from Thursday 20 January. See
www.glasgowfilm.org/festival
For further information, interview requests, screeners and images
contact Alison Young, Press Officer at press@glasgowfilm.org or on
0141 332 6535 ext 245 / mobile 07505 839 075
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau is the official marketing agency for metropolitan Glasgow. It
is engaged in national and international activity comprising: development and implementation
of the city branding campaign Glasgow: Scotland with style; event creation, attraction,
management and marketing; conventions, incentives, meetings and exhibition sales;
conference and event accommodation bookings; public relations and the development of the
website: www.seeglasgow.com
EventScotland is the national events agency.

EventScotland is working to make Scotland one of the world’s leading event
destinations. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events
EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the
economy by attracting more visitors.
 The Year of Active Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative being delivered by
EventScotland and VisitScotland which began on the 1st January 2011. For more
information go to www.eventscotland.org/activescotland
 EventScotland in partnership with Volunteer Development Scotland is delivering
Event Team Scotland, a new web - based portal which matches volunteers across
Scotland with exciting sporting and cultural events. For more information please visit
www.eventteamscotland.com
For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news
visit www.EventScotland.org
Creative Scotland is the national leader for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries.
Established in July 2010, Creative Scotland is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) and is
a significant investor in the creative sector, committing both Scottish Government and
National Lottery funding. It is committed to working with partners across local government and
the wider public sector, creative people and organisations, as well as commercial partners.
Creative Scotland will:
·
Invest in talent
·
Invest in quality of artistic production
·
Invest in audiences, access and participation
·
Invest in the cultural economy
·
Invest in places and their contribution to a Creative Scotland
Education, equalities and international partnerships underpin all of our work. Creative
Scotland has replaced both Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council.
Glasgow Film Festival is an operating name of Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). A company limited by guarantee,
registered in Scotland No. 97369 with its registered office at 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB. GFT is registered as
a charity (No SC005932) with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.