Category: General chat and trailers

Keeping with tradition, I will be posting a trailer a day until the festival

Got my picks! 4 films a day, and I get to see everything I want.

This year is going to be a little different from previous years, as expected. Obviously everything is online, but also there’s not as much adherence to the different strands as usual. Frightfest will be running, as will Country Focus – this year is South Korea – but most films aren’t associated with a strand. For the purposes of this blog, I’m just gonna stick them in the strand I think they would normally go.

Can’t wait!

Well, cuntpunt 2021. The lockdown means no cinemas will be open in time for the festival. Kinda thought this might happen but today it was confirmed – https://glasgowfilm.org/latest/news/glasgow-film-festival-responds-to-lockdown-restrictions-update-to-festival-plans

The downsides are obvious. The festival isn’t just the films, it’s the people, the atmosphere, the venues. I love pelting along Sauchiehall Street trying to get from the GFT to the CCA to Cineworld. I love being in the GFT looking up at the ceiling in cinema 1 as I’m waiting for the film to start. I love having the films introduced and everyone giving a polite round of applause. It makes me happy. And after the year we’ve had, God knows we could all do with something that makes us happy. It’ll not be the same.

But. There will be upsides too. For example, it’ll now not matter where you are in the country, you can take part in the GFF by watching online. There are so many great movies shown, it’ll be great for them to be available to a wider audience. Also, you won’t be confined by watching in this one two-hour slot, you’ll be able to watch whenever suits you. Plus, it means if I review something, and you think you’d like it, you won’t have to wait until it comes out later in the year to see it, you can watch it online right away.

Another upside is I will not exist for 3 days in a row on a swiftly grabbed handful of breakfast cereal and the occasional poppyseed bagel. While traveling from my bedroom to my livingroom to my kitchen for my usual two-week holiday isn’t exactly electrifying, it does mean I will be able to get three square meals a day.

One downside which might not be obvious is the homebound influence of inertia. If I’m getting out at 8am to see 5 movies and getting in for 1am, the day has momentum that carries you through. If I wake up at midday in my own bed, how likely am I to fit in 5 films between scratching my arse and doing my washing? But fuck it, I’m going to look at this as an opportunity, getting to see movies with no clash in scheduling, none of the impossibility of getting there in time.

Plus, and this is the real point, this way everyone will be safe. I mean, bellyaching aside, that’s the only thing that really matters, and it’s just not possible this year. Next year, we’ll all have had the vaccine, and we can kick fuck out of GFF22.

So 2020 was an absolutely shitty year for pretty much everyone. Thank fuck it’s on its road out finally.

GFF20 managed to go ahead unscathed, but the GFT who run the festival had to shut for the majority of the year, and that effected them financially in a massive way. Luckily Glasgow Film, which runs both the festival and the GFT, is an educational charity and could apply for support as such.

And to narrow the scope of the shittiness of the Covid pandemic down from its global catastrophe to just the purview of this blog – the Glasgow Film Festival – it’s also had an impact on how GFF21 will go ahead.

For the first time, the GFF will run online, as well as in-person cinema showings. It will also run in cinemas outside Glasgow for the first time, all across the UK. Find the list of participating cinemas here – https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/latest/news/glasgow-film-festival-will-screen-in-cinemas-nationwide-for-2021.

This is good news. The wider the audience and more accessible the festival is, the better. Plus it gives the GFF room to pivot if they do need to close a venue, or if Glasgow comes under tighter restrictions.

I still have a lot of questions about how this is gonna work though. Like, are all films gonna be shown online and in cinema? Or are some being shown in person only, or online only? Are they going to be showing online simultaneous to the in-person showings, so you can watch from home and join in the conversation? Or is it gonna act more like a catch-up after the cinema showings? Will films be available online through the entirety of the festival? Or just within 48 hours or so of the cinema screening? Will the online showings have the same ticket price as the cinema showings? Or cheaper since you’re not getting the cinema experience? There are pros and cons to both those options.

It’s only December now, so more information will follow as time goes on. The full programme is out on the 14th January, so we’ll not have to wait too long into 2021 to find out.

Minari will be this year’s Opening Gala film, which looks great from the trailer. And Spring Blossom is the coming-of-age flick which will finish us off at the Closing Gala. This year the Opening and Closing Gala tickets will go on sale at the same time as the rest of the programme. This flagged a little question mark for me, was it because they were anticipating less demand for GFF21? Or it could be that they are not doing a full event, so there’s no catering and bar to book ahead of time. While I love the Opening and Closing Gala events, (I practically chase the waiters round those things for the canapes), I have to admit, the total scrum at 29 would not be something we would wanna recreate in the time of Covid. Again, no deets yet, but there’s time still for full announcements on that.

Another thing that has been missing, has been any mention of special event screenings. Last year I went to the Train to Busan showing under the Arches, and in previous years they’ve done stuff like showing The Thing on a dry ski slope. All fucking ace, and that stuff usually gets announced around December time ahead of the main programme. No mention of this yet, which could suggest big events are just going to be too difficult to co-ordinate this year. Or maybe they still totally have a line-up of events they’re going to announce later in the month. It is only the 15th after all.

I think probably there has just been a knock-on effect from the GFF team working from home all year, like there has been for all of us, that have meant delays and uncertainty have prevented them from sticking to their usual announcement schedule. Which is extremely understandable.

Regardless, I think GFF21 is going to be awesome. I’m also really looking forward to being able to see all my first choices of films, if I can watch them online at any convenient time, rather than have to pick and choose between clashing screenings.

But for now, I just want to see the back of this god-awful year, the only shining part of which was GFF20 and the great online offerings from Africa in Motion and Take One Action festivals. Fingers crossed for 2021 to come.

Fuck 2020 and Covid 19!

As Glasgow goes into Tier 3 lockdown, the GFT is closing from Monday 2nd November. Obviously we hope these restrictions can be lifted at the earliest opportunity, when things get reassessed in a fortnight, but we all thought we’d only be quarantined for a couple of weeks during the first lockdown, so fuck knows.

In the meantime, support Glasgow Film, which runs GFF and GFT, by donating here – https://glasgowfilm.org/iframe-donation

The GFT is back and showing movies. Please go support them. After being closed for 6 months, they could use every penny.

Glasgow Film, which is the charity that runs the GFF and the GFT cinema, could do with a helping hand the now. Due to the coronavirus crisis, the GFT has had to shut. As a not-for-profit charity, who support a number of dedicated staff members, having to close for a month or possibly more can have a severe effect. Please consider donating to them – www.glasgowfilm.org/iframe-donation.

Holy Jeebus, we’ve only just finished GFF20 and the GFF21 dates are being announced.

See you all next year 24th February – 7th March!

It was a good un