Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Film

Glasgow Film Festival 2021: Slightly slimmed-down and impressive

The 2021 festival has gone fully online, which means its slightly slimmed-down but still impressive programme is available to everyone, says Graeme Virtue

Ewen Bremner’s portrayal of Alan McGee is unveiled at the Glasgow Film Festival.

Ewen Bremner’s portrayal of Alan McGee is unveiled at the Glasgow Film Festival.

The 2020 edition of Glasgow Film Festival snuck in just under the lockdown wire last February with a series of public screenings across the city, including the now-notorious Promising Young Woman, starring Carey Mulligan, as its knockout surprise film.

Lockdowns have taken income away from hundreds of Big Issue sellers. Support The Big Issue and our vendors by signing up for a subscription.

The 2021 festival has gone fully online, which means that its slightly slimmed-down but still impressive programme is available for everyone to access: tickets cost around £10 and you have a four-day window to watch your chosen film.

Highlights include the world premiere of Alan McGee biopic Creation Stories with Ewen Bremner embodying the man who signed Oasis, the beautifully observed and already award-winning Scottish island refugee comedy Limbo and twist-filled drama Black Bear, starring Aubrey Plaza as a creatively struggling film-maker.

There is also a strand celebrating the best of new South Korean cinema, including its current Oscar hopeful The Man Standing Next – a tense political thriller – plus a typically bloodthirsty FrightFest weekend crammed with enjoyably disreputable genre movies, including Run Hide Fight (which comes pitched as “Die Hard in a school”).

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Logging on for a private screening might not be quite the same as packing into the grand old auditorium of the Glasgow Film Theatre’s Cinema One, but it seems like a decent substitute and with any luck things will be back to normal for GFF 2022.

Glasgow Film Festival is running from February 24 to March 7

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

How many kids, Keir?

Ask the PM to tell us how many kids he'll get out of poverty
Image of two parents holding two small children, facing away from the camera

Recommended for you

View all
The Mastermind review – Kelly Reichardt lays out the worst-laid plans
Film

The Mastermind review – Kelly Reichardt lays out the worst-laid plans

Mr Scorsese director Rebecca Miller on the surprising thing about Martin Scorsese
Film

Mr Scorsese director Rebecca Miller on the surprising thing about Martin Scorsese

Cillian Murphy: 'There's this massive imbalance where the most important people can't afford a house'
Film

Cillian Murphy: 'There's this massive imbalance where the most important people can't afford a house'

Good Boy review – tails of the unexpected in a ghostly shaggy-dog story
Film

Good Boy review – tails of the unexpected in a ghostly shaggy-dog story