What to see at the vir­tu­al Glas­gow Film Fes­ti­val 2021

The 2020 Glas­gow Film Fes­ti­val seems as if it occurred a life­time ago. It must have been one of the last live, in-per­son fes­ti­vals where peo­ple could actu­al­ly utter the words ​“Is this seat tak­en?” pri­or to the world being nudged off a cliff and its pop­u­lous sub­se­quent­ly locked behind a lap­top screen for almost a year. Heed­ing gov­ern­ment guid­ance, Glas­gow is back this year as a dig­i­tal-only fes­ti­val, offer­ing up its usu­al boun­ty of world and local cin­e­ma, but ask­ing you to pro­vide your own snacks.

The fes­ti­val itself works so well because it trades on that live aspect and uses cin­e­ma to both serve and enthral the pub­lic. Along­side their screen­ings at the Glas­gow Film The­atre, the CCA and oth­er venues, the pro­gram­ming is geared towards bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er to expe­ri­ence films in unique ways, whether that’s in the com­pa­ny of direct­ing or act­ing tal­ent, or in a unique spot that isn’t usu­al­ly known for screen­ing films (I once saw Dawn of the Dead screened in a shop­ping cen­tre, for example).

It sounds like I’m rub­bing salt in the wound a bit, and I won’t lie: it’s sad not to be able to hop up to the fes­ti­val as it is, with­out doubt, one of the most fun and com­mu­ni­ty-mind­ed fes­ti­vals on the cal­en­dar. But it’s also great that they are march­ing on and, like all arts organ­i­sa­tions worth their salt, allow­ing neces­si­ty to be the moth­er of inven­tion. So it’s a dig­i­tal fes­ti­val this year, boast­ing eight world pre­mieres, three Euro­pean pre­mieres, and a whop­ping 48 UK premieres.

Things are kick­ing off in the best way imag­in­able, with the first UK screen­ing of Lee Isaac Chung’s delight­ful Oscar-hope­ful, Minari, about a South Kore­an fam­i­ly who, dur­ing the 1980s, have decamped to Arkansas (via Cal­i­for­nia) in search of their for­tune, but also some pro­found con­nec­tion to the local land­scape. Clos­ing things out is Spring Blos­som, the debut fea­ture by 21-year-old Suzanne (daugh­ter of Vin­cent) Lindon.

This isn’t real­ly the place to namecheck every­thing play­ing in the fes­ti­val, but we’ll try our best to pick out some of the things that tick­le our own fan­cy. You’re not going to want to miss Ben Sharrock’s Lim­bo, which exam­ines the grim process of acquir­ing refugee sta­tus in the UK with a lev­i­ty and sense of humour that lifts it above more dour works on the subject.

We’re also intrigued by Cre­ation Sto­ries, a chron­i­cle of Scot­tish impre­sario Alan McGee and the found­ing of his icon­ic label Cre­ation Records, which is penned by Irvine Welsh, direct­ed by Nick Moran and stars Ewen Brem­n­er. Remain­ing on the music tip there’s Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, a new film about the charis­mat­ic front­woman of zany punk stal­warts X‑Ray Spex.

Else­where there’s the French kitchen sink fan­ta­sy Gagarine, about a derelict Parisian hous­ing estate that one man decides to trans­form into a space sta­tion, Black Bear, which is billed as a psy­cho­sex­u­al dra­ma star­ring the always-reli­able Aubrey Plaza. There’s also a chance to catch up with the new film by the grand­fa­ther of mil­i­tant­ly objec­tive obser­va­tion­al doc­u­men­tary, as Fred­er­ick Wiseman’s wide­ly-laud­ed City Hall will receive a screening.

As well, there’s a side­bar in which GFF part­ners up with the Shang­hai Film Fes­ti­val to trade some of its top titles, and there’s also a coun­try focus on South Korea, offer­ing audi­ences a chance to sur­vey the cin­e­mat­ic fruits from a coun­try in the midst of a major cre­ative boom. There is also Arrow Video’s Fright­Fest week­ender which offers up the gore­hounds among us a mini selec­tion of cur­rent hor­ror film treats.

The Glas­gow Film Fes­ti­val runs from 24 Feb­ru­ary to 7 March. Tick­ets go on sale from 12 noon on 18 Jan­u­ary and can be pur­chased from glas​gow​film​.org