Female voic­es are at the cen­tre of the 2020 Glas­gow Film Festival

Is this a dream? A full day of a film fes­ti­val ded­i­cat­ed sole­ly to the work of female direc­tors? Nope, it’s real, and it’s hap­pen­ing as part of the 2020 Glas­gow Film Fes­ti­val to cel­e­brate Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day. This, added to the news that both the open­ing and clos­ing night galas will be films direct­ed by women, and that there is some gen­uine ded­i­ca­tion to pro­gram­ming diversity.

In the mix is Lucy Brydon’s Body of Water (a world pre­mière) which sees its female pro­tag­o­nist bat­tle an eat­ing dis­or­der while try­ing to keep up the role of moth­er and daugh­ter. Else­where, Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls doc­u­ments three sis­ters speak­ing out on the sex­u­al abuse they faced as children.

These themes are dis­tress­ing, but their rep­re­sen­ta­tion is fun­da­men­tal­ly impor­tant when it comes to cham­pi­oning not just female cre­ators, but female-focused sub­ject mat­ter. We’re also keen to catch Clare Oakley’s first fea­ture, Make-Up, in which the writer/​director attempts to tack­le themes of self love by employ­ing the frame­work of psy­cho­log­i­cal horror.

Glas­gow will also be host­ing the UK pre­mière of Mark Cousins epic series Women Make Film, in which he explores the his­to­ry of female tal­ent behind and in front of the cam­era. This 14-hour doc is bro­ken up into five sep­a­rate episodes also boasts nar­ra­tion tal­ent by the likes of Til­da Swin­ton and Jane Fon­da, and it will be screened over the final three days of the festival.

Also in the mix is the world pre­mière of Julian Jarrold’s Sul­phur & White, star­ring Emi­ly Beecham. On a more polit­i­cal bent is a new film by Antho­ny Bax­ter called Flint, which mon­i­tors the unfor­tu­nate polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion in the epony­mous Michi­gan city which has had ter­ri­ble prob­lems with its plumb­ing sys­tem and poi­soned water sup­ply. Love Sarah by Eliza Schroed­er is described by the fes­ti­val as Not­ting Hill meets The Great British Bake Off and is said to offer a sen­si­tive take on eat­ing disorders.

It’s a huge, excit­ing pro­gram which offers some­thing for every­one, includ­ing bet the best of recent film fes­ti­vals such as Cannes, Venice and Toron­to. Our hot tip for this year is is Roy Andersson’s bizarre and heart­break­ing exper­i­men­tal saga About End­less­ness which, in a series of tragi­com­ic vignettes, picks apart the beau­ti­ful and strange aspects of life on Earth.

The fes­ti­val kicks off on 26 Feb­ru­ary and runs through to 8 March, between which time a mas­sive 380 films will screen. Tick­ets go on sale at 12 noon on 30 Jan­u­ary via glas​gow​film​.org