Glasgow Film Festival (GFF)’s long-standing director Allison Gardner is heading into her final edition in post feeling both excited at the line-up, and emotional at her last hurrah: “I’m sure tears will be shed, but it’s nice to go out on a high.”
Gardner has worked at Glasgow Film for over 30 years, the charity that runs the festival and cinema Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), and as CEO since April 2020. But Gardner isn’t out the door yet – she doesn’t officially leave the organisation until October, and there’s still plenty of work to be done.
The festival opens and closes with two world premieres: John Maclean’s Tornado on February 26 and Martyn Robertson’s documentary Make It To Munich on March 9.
The industry line-up includes an update on the UK’s nascent Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) and the inaugural Funny Features Live Pitch, in which comedy projects will be pitched to execs from UK companies including Bankside, Baby Cow and Curzon.
Gardner sat down with Screen to talk programme stand-outs, next steps both for herself and the festival and why Richard Gere is the perfect festival guest.
What are some of your programme highlights this year?
I know everyone gravitates towards Jessica Lange [star ofLong Day’s Journey Into Night] and James McAvoy [Cinema City award recipient], but I love the audience award. For me, this year, it is a bit like the Oscars race. Everyone is on a very even keel.
I’ve got my personal favourites, like [SXSW 2024 premiere] Bob Trevino Likes It. I cried buckets. It’s a beautifully told story with brilliant acting – you forget how great American indie films really get you, which I don’t think we see as many of.
The area of growth is the industry focus. We’ve put together a four-day programme – the team is knocking it out the park. We’ve noticed it’s getting a lot of people in from around the UK. We’re now down at The Social Hub, so we’ve got all the [industry] activities in one place, that’s much better because we were a wee bit spread out before.
What’s the leadership structure going to look like at Glasgow Film, going forward?
I’ve made the right decision, for myself and the organisation. We’ve had our multi-year funding decision go through [as of January, Creative Scotland awarded Glasgow Film £3.6m across three years], we’re working on outlining the budget for that for the next two years. The board will be recruiting a new CEO with a separate festival post. We’re still working our way through that. Obviously, [the structure] will depend on the new CEO as well. I never intended to do two jobs – it was force of circumstance that allowed me to keep doing both. I love the festival, but it has been really tough going. For five years – Covid, keeping everyone on, growing the festival, bringing GFT audiences back, cost of living crisis, lack of funding.
The board appoints the CEO, I won’t have any control over that, but I have some say over the festival post.
Stand-out moments from GFF over the years?
The first moment we knew we were getting there which is when we had In The Loop as the European premiere for the opening gala [in 2009].
Some of the audience awards –Lipstick Under My Burkha was having some trouble because the Indian censor board barred the film, so Alankrita Shrivastava winning the audience award [in 2017] was great.
And having great guests over the years, like James Earl Jones – he was such a lovely man. Alan Rickman was gorgeous. Richard Gere – he was great, I keep saying any A-listers we have as guests have to be Buddhists going forward, they only drink lemon tea.
That sounds good for managing budgets. What’s next for you, and what do you hope will be next for the festival?
I’m not very good at doing nothing, so I’d like to work two days a week, and do one day a week volunteering somewhere. I’m not sure I’d be a very good consultant because I’d say what you need to do, rather than what you want to hear.
The festival has a three and five-year plan – we will stick to cinema for all. We have to grow the infrastructure of where we can show films, but Glasgow Film Theatre has to be at the heart of that.
What would you like your legacy to be?
I feel I am leaving the organisation in a very, very good place. For me, that’s my legacy. I’ve worked really hard for the last 30 years in every position I’ve been in to strive for cinema for all. I genuinely live it. That’s built into the DNA now.
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