GFT: January and February

VALENTINE’S DAY AT GFT
GFT celebrates Valentine’s Day this February with four brilliant films which explore the strange and mysterious ways in which love can bring even the unlikeliest couples together.

Reissued for its 70th anniversary, Brief Encounter screens on Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 February. Directed by auteur David Lean and adapted by Noël Coward from his own stage play, this is a poignant and beautifully crafted love story which hasn’t aged since its debut seventy years ago.

A new digital print of George Cukor’s 1940 classic The Philadelphia Story (Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 February) also returns to the silver screen in time for Valentine’s Day.

Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant star in this screwball comedy about 1930s Philadelphia high society.

Mike Nichols' landmark hit The Graduate (Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 February) provides the perfect Valentine’s Day viewing with its unconventional tale of true love surviving and flourishing despite the direst of circumstances.

Following its preview at Glasgay! in October, Love Is Strange returns to GFT Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 February. Veteran screen actors Alfred Molina and John Lithgow star in this beautifully observed tale of true love in the Big Apple.

Check out the full Valentine’s Day listings here.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM LIVE

IFFR Live is a series of film premiere events broadcast simultaneously to cinemas across Europe from the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). A live Q&A in which audiences will be invited to participate via Twitter with members of the cast and crew will follow all films. Films in this season include screenings of transcendently beautiful high seas adventure Atlantic.; the intense and evocative Speed Walking from the director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; and contemporary drama about the bombing of Belgrade in 1999, The Sky Above Us.

International Film Festival Rotterdam Live takes place at GFT from Saturday 24 – Wednesday 28 January.The full festival details can be found here.

GLASGOW YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL

Glasgow Youth Film Festival returns this February (Fri 6–Sun 8) for a stellar set of films, workshops and events. This year most of the child-friendly programming has been integrated into the main Glasgow Film Festival Modern Families strand, meaning the festival's dynamic young programming team – it is the only film event in Europe totally curated by 15-18 year olds – have focused the festival into an audacious, weekend-long youth cinema showcase. The three-day line-up is a full-on teen takeover, with a jam-packed programme taking in everything from cutting-edge sci-fi premieres, late-night cult classics, a special pop-up closing gala, and a stellar set of films, workshops and events throughout.

Highlights include opening film sci-fi spectacle The Signal, as well as hard-hitting and thought provoking international films such as Supernova, Korso and, winner of the Best Film award at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, Class Enemy.

Young programmer Sean McInally, 16, said, ‘Working on the GYFF team has been a fantastic insight into film festival programming, events organization and the film industry itself, while producing the trailer has given me great filmmaking experience. I'm delighted that we've a great film like The Signal as our Opening Gala – I think 2015’s GYFF is going to be the best so far!’

For full details of all GYFF events and workshops please visit http://www.glasgowfilm.org/gyff

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL

Glasgow Film Festival is delighted to announce that tickets are now available for the first six events from its 2015 programme. In their 2015 programme, GFF will return to Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for a very special live dance show and screening of Strictly Ballroom, and also take over the atmospheric, Gothic surroundings of Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, as composer Irene Buckley premieres a brand new soundtrack to 1928 classic The Fall of the House of Usher on the Hall’s original Wurlitzer Cinema Organ. Comedy legend Paul Merton and award-winning silent film pianist Neil Brand have teamed up to pay tribute to another legend, Buster Keaton, with a hilarious live show. GFF is delighted to host the Scottish premiere of British Sea Power’s hugely acclaimed film/live score project From The Sea To The Land Beyond. The phenomenal French bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons and his live band create an Eastern-Western fusion score to Lotte Reiniger’s magical 1926 animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed, while GFF brings Walker Art Center’s famous Internet Cat Video Festival to the UK with a premiere at GoMA.

On Monday 26 January (17.45), GFF taster event Charlie’s Country & Meet the Programmers provides a chance for audiences to learn about the newly released programme, see trailers, and hear why the programmers selected certain films. Followed by a screening of Rolf de Heer’s (The Tracker) new feature Charlie’s Country, a powerful story about Australia’s treatment of Aborigines starring veteran Australian talent David Gulpilil(Walkabout, Rabbit-Proof Fence).

For full details of all GFF events, please visit http://www.glasgowfilm.org/festival/whats_on

MORE JANUARY/FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS

On Sunday 11 January, LUX Scotland presents Absences and (Im)possibilities as part of GFT’s Crossing the Line season of films. This programme of experimental Irish film curated by the Experimental Film Club features films from the Lumiére brothers, Samuel Beckett, Vivienne Dick, Dónal Ó Céilleachair and Jesse Jones.

Presented in glorious Scope 35mm, Psychotronic Cinema present Terry Gilliam’s outrageous, unhinged adaptation of Hunter S Thompson’s infamous novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Wednesday 21 January.

Other highlights include a new digital print of the Marx Brothers’ comedic 1933 masterpiece Duck Soup onSunday 18 & Tuesday 20 January, and a new digital print of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1940 tale of love in the Hebrides I Know Where I’m Going, which will screen on Sunday 25 January to celebrate Burns Night.

The GFT Access Film Club continues throughout January and February with two films which have been voted for by the public. On Tuesday 13 January, the screening will have a ‘Scottish’ theme, and on Tuesday 10 February a ‘True Stories’ theme. Organised in association with Scottish Autism, the screenings provide a welcoming and relaxed environment for those with Autism Spectrum Disorders.