Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) has set the first titles for its 2023 edition (March 1-12), as well as confirming that the upcoming edition will be festival co-director Allan Hunter’s last.
The 19th edition’s country focus will be Spain. The strand, titled ‘2023 Country Focus: Viva el cine español!’, will include Venice premiere On The Fringe. The social-realist drama is the directorial debut of The Suicide Squad actor Juan Diego Botto, and stars Penélope Cruz and Luis Tosar.
Also playing will be Spanish filmmaker Alberto Rodríguez’s Prison 77, which was the opening night film at San Sebastian. The thriller is inspired by true events, and set during Spain’s 1970s period of transition from Franco’s dictatorship to democracy, in Barcelona’s Modelo prison. Berlin Panorama title Lullaby also joins the line-up. It is a first feature by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa. Laia Costa stars a woman struggling with the roles of both mother and daughter
The full GFF programme will be unveiled in January.
15 years at the helm
Allan Hunter will step down as co-director after the upcoming edition. He has held the role since 2007, alongside Allison Gardner, who will remain in the position.
Hunter said: “It has been one of the great privileges of my career to be part of the Glasgow Film Festival for the past 15 years. It has been humbling to witness how the festival has grown and to discover just how much is it cherished by our incredible audiences.
”Everything has its season and it is time to move along. Time for someone with fresh ideas and energy to assist the festival on the next stage of its journey. I will miss wonderful colleagues and the best audiences in the world but I look forward to watching the festival continue to grow and prosper.”
Gardner said: ”We are excited and delighted to share some of the upcoming treats we have for GFF23 with our audiences, however as it is Allan’s last festival the moment is tinged with sadness for me. I cannot properly articulate how much I have loved working with alongside him, his knowledge, enthusiasm and patience are legendary, and I will be bereft without him. However, I am looking forward to guiding GFF to a new phase that will continue to delight audiences and be a beacon of film light to our burgeoning film industry.”
Further titles
The 2023 programme will also feature a celebration of the work of US actress and filmmaker Lee Grant. Five of her documentaries will be screened: Battered, Down And Out In America, What Sex Am I?, When Women Kill and The Willmar 8.
The free-to-attend Retrospectives strand also returns, and will champion films about women taking charge of their lives. The strand, titled ‘In the driving seat’, will showcase It Happened One Night, The Piano, Roman Holiday and Bonnie And Clyde.
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