The Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) is returning for its 18th edition in a hybrid format, kicking off today (March 2) until March 13.
For the first time, GFF is partnering with cinemas across the UK, including Bristol’s Watershed, the Barbican in London and Manchester’s Home, for simultaneous screenings of the opening night gala (Graham Moore’s The Outfit), closing night gala (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Murina) and an International Women’s Day UK premiere of Audrey Diwan’s Happening on March 8.
Festival screenings will take place in-person at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) and Cineworld Glasgow, with select screenings also available online to stream through the Glasgow Film At Home platform.
This year’s programme line-up includes 10 world premieres, four European premieres and 65 UK premieres, as well as a strand dedicated to African filmmakers titled African Stories and a retrospective of the films of Norwegian director Edith Carlmar.
The seventh industry focus will take place from March 6-10, with speakers including BFI Film Fund director Mia Bays and Screen Scotland executive director Isabel Davis. Physical events will be held at the main festival hub in Glasgow’s DoubleTree Hilton hotel, as well as online.
GFF co-director Allison Gardner runs the festival with co-director Allan Hunter, a position she has held since 2007. She has also been chief executive of Glasgow Film since April 2020, which she describes as “probably the worst time in the world to take over”.
Gardner talks to Screen about getting to grips with a hybrid model, her thoughts on the European film festival landscape and ambitions for a GFF market.
What highlights are you most excited about this year?
If you say you’re a festival championing new talent, you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is, and we’ve done that. Our opening gala and closing gala will be playing at partner cinemas across the UK, and both titles are debut features.
We’ve got a broad range, even though the programme is smaller than it normally is, from The Ledge at FrightFest, to Hive and Zalava which are part of the audience award and the great African Stories we have like The Gravedigger’s Wife and One Take Grace, we try to give something for everyone.
What Covid protocols will be in place?
We’re following the Scottish government. Mask wearing is still mandatory and that will be part of the festival experience. The only time the mask comes off is when someone is doing an introduction or in-person Q&A at the front [of a screening or industry session]. We’ve asked all audience members and guests to, as a courtesy, take a lateral flow before attending any event. It’s mandatory to take a lateral flow before you attend any of our networking drinks. There are no parties for the public. For staff, it’s mandatory to take a lateral flow before doing a shift. Screenings will be open at 100% capacity.
How have you found steering the ship through the pandemic period?
We’ve been able to pay all our staff 100% of their wages through the whole lockdown period and we didn’t make anybody redundant, so that’s great. For me, looking after the staff is a priority.
Hybrid has been an interesting challenge – it’s like running two festivals. It’s not just about putting stuff online – it needs to have a clear vision of why it should be there. I decided to ensure all the audience awards films are online, so that the whole country can vote. There’s a digital industry session pass or an in-person industry session pass. We’re using the same online platform, Shift72, as we used last year. It’s expensive, but we need it to be top of the range.
Did the likes of Rotterdam, the European Film Market and Sundance going online-only at the start of the year make you feel nervous?
I don’t really get like that. If you can’t control it, what’s the fucking point of worrying about it? October, November and December should be our planning months, but Omicron made people very nervous so we couldn’t get answers from sales agents and distributors, not because they weren’t responding to us, but because they didn’t know what they wanted to do with the films amid the uncertainty and consumer confidence issue about going to the cinema. Planning has taken a while.
How have you coped financially?
It has been tough – over 60% of the Glasgow Film Theatre’s income is earned through the bar and the box office. Our funders like Screen Scotland and the BFI have been truly excellent and really supportive. We don’t receive anything from Europa Cinemas anymore – thank you Brexit. It wasn’t a huge amount of money, but I liked being part of a European network.
We’re also a very well financially managed organisation so we have reserves, as all charities should do. We had those reserves because of great financial management over the past 15 years.
Will GFF be further addressing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, following the pulling of two Russian titles from the upcoming edition?
We put out a statement and that pretty much says [our stance]. It’s sad and we never take these decisions lightly. I imagine there are a lot of Russian creatives, and the general populous who are probably appalled by what’s happening. I’ve had sleepless nights over it.
What makes GFF distinct from its European counterparts?
Glasgow is the city that loves to talk to you. GFF is a friendly festival – it’s small and intimate while still being big enough in terms of its international reach. There are the premiere festivals of the world like Cannes and Berlin, but they are just too big to have that intimate feel. GFF is roots up and doesn’t have the middle-class elitism that perhaps other festivals are known for. I’m from a working-class background, and it’s important for us to look at who is on our doorstep. We need to involve all of our community – we have free screenings every morning, and we have a dementia-friendly screening of Dr. No on Thursday [March 3].
What could GFF learn from other festivals?
We’re still in the early days of our industry focus, and a market would be great, but it’s a tough ask – these things are quite expensive to set up. I like how Rotterdam does stuff, as a mid-level festival. I work very closely with Grainne Humphreys on the Dublin Film Festival, and I think that a more collaborate, collegiate approach across festivals works well. More collaboration, and less empire building please, chaps. And more women in charge of stuff, across everything.
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