Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel to open Glasgow Film Festival

Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel will receive its UK premiere as the opening film of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) on Feb 20.

With the festival celebrating its tenth edition this year, its opening gala recalls their first-ever closing gala, Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which will also receive a screening during the festival on Glasgow’s Tall Ship.

Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, which was partly shot in Glasgow and stars Scarlett Johansson as a predatory alien seductress, will receive its Scottish premiere as the closing film on March 2.

Premieres

This year’s edition (supported by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, EventScotland and Creative Scotland) will feature a record 60 UK premieres, including Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo; Sandra Nettelbeck’s Mr. Morgan’s Last Love; Philippe Claudel’s Before the Winter Chill; Mati Diop’s A Thousand Suns; and Felix Herngren’s The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.

Rachel Maclean’s A Whole New World, Robert Florence’s The House of Him and David Graham Scott’s Iboga Nights are among the world premieres at this year’s festival, while the likes of Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition, David Mackenzie’s Starred Up and Steven Knight’s Locke will receive their Scottish premieres.

Speaking to Screen, co-festival director Allan Hunter said: “It feels a real coup for the Festival to be opening with the UK premiere of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel just two weeks after the world premiere at Berlin.

“We’re also screening the fantastic restoration of Rebel Without A Cause just after the international premiere at Berlin.

“A number of titles at GFF in 2013 went on to secure UK distribution including Blancanieves and The Artist and the Model so we hope there might be titles among this year’s UK premieres that might also entice distributors; films like Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, John Sayles’ Go For Sisters, Tangerines or The Tale of Iya, which had its world premiere at Tokyo.”

Strands

Strands at this year’s festival include the return of Game Cats Go Miaow! (a selection of video game events, discussions and film experiences), Crossing the Line (fusions of art and cinema), It’s a Wonderful World (local box office hits from across the globe) and a focus on Chilean filmmaking with CineChile.

Talking about the CineChile strand, Hunter said: “The success of Gloria and No has inspired us to feature Chile in our country focus and I think audiences will be amazed by the range and quality of work coming from Chile.

“I think they will really embrace films like The Quispe Sisters and Things The Way They Are.”

FrightFest

Film4 FrightFest also returns to the festival for the ninth year, kicking off with FrightFest co-director Alan Jones talking to Ti West at a special presentation on Feb 27. West’s latest film The Sacrament will screen during the festival as well.

With repeat screenings on March 2, the main FrightFest programme takes place Feb 28-March 1 and features two world premieres: Jake West’s documentary Video Nasties: Draconian Days and John Suits’ The Scribbler, an adaptation of Dan Shaffer’s bestselling graphic novel.

The 11-strong strand is completed with the European premiere of Jordan Barker’s Torment and UK premieres of Zack Parker’s Proxy, Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek 2, the Mo Brothers’ Killers, Cliff Prowse & Derek Lee’s Afflicted and Jorge Dorado’s Mindscape. Joe Begos’ Almost Human and Michael S. Ojeda’s Savaged both receive their Scottish premieres.

Special events

Special events set to take place during GFF 2014 include a fancy dress gala screening of Young Frankenstein at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum; a Tron screening in the lo-fi surroundings of warehouse-turned-nightclub The Glue Factory; Street Food Cinema screenings of the likes of When Harry Met Sally and Goodfellas (in collaboration with Street Food Cartel); and a Geeks vs Gamers Super Quiz.

“We are in celebratory mood. We always want to make the amazing city of Glasgow one of the stars of the Festival and that is truer than ever this year with unique pop-up cinema events happening in unusual venues all over the city,” added Hunter.

Guests

Among the guests so far announced for this year’s festival are Richard Ayoade for The Double; Roger Christian for his restored short Black Angel; George Sluizer for the UK premiere of the final cut of Dark Blood (River Phoenix’s last film); and Lauren Mayberry, co-founder of feminist collective TYCI and lead singer of Chvrches, to introduce The Punk Singer.

The FrightFest strand will see Jake West and producer Marc Morris introduce Video Nasties and Zach Parker in attendance for Proxy, while John Suits and Jordan Barker will introduce The Scribbler and Torment, respectively.

Janet Archer, chief executive at Creative Scotland, commented: “At a time when the eyes of the world are firmly placed on Scotland and Glasgow ahead of the Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup and Homecoming, GFF have pulled out all the stops to present us with an outstanding programme.”

For more information and the full lineup, visit the festival’s website.