Scotland’s Spring film festival round-up

  • Date

    13th March 2023

A fantastic few months of film festivals and screenings is coming to Scotland.

Spring has a lot to offer Scotland’s film fans. From celebrating Scotland’s Black LGBTQ history to lighthouse projections, people across the country are congregating to celebrate film in all its forms this month, and beyond.

March certainly packs a punch: clear your calendar towards the end of the month to make space for not one, but three, fantastic festivals in one weekend. Until then, lean into the feast that the start of Spring offers.

Here’s a few highlights from the festival programmes that we think you won’t want to miss:

March

Glasgow Film Festival spanned the first couple of weeks of this month (1-12 March); a show-stopping selection of Scottish talent, world premieres, thought-provoking discussions and a packed Industry Focus programme.

Standouts included: Audience Award Winner Riceboy Sleeps (2022, dir. Anthony Shim); Daniel Goldhaber’s documentary of environmental activism How to Blow Up a Pipeline and the premiere of Dog Days, the debut feature from ‘Springburn Scorsese’, James Price.

Although the festival may be over, you can celebrate GFF23 in your own home with the Glasgow Film at Home player. Watch seven hand-picked titles from the 2023 programme, starting with Dear Memories.

Head to the Glasgow Film at Home player.

Cinemattic’s special programme, Mujeres, returns, bringing together colourful, radical, visionary films made by women across the world in the last year. This year’s programme has a special focus on the politics of everyday labor and the power of women’s collective action.

The line-up includes critically-acclaimed films awarded and seen in Cannes, San Sebastian, Visions du Reel and DocsLisboa film festivals; short films nominated for the recent Goya Awards (Cuerdas by Estibaliz Urresola) as well as hidden gems recovered for the enjoyment of Scottish audiences.

Catch them at CCA, Glasgow – 18 March and St Peter’s Episcopal Church Hall, Edinburgh – 25 March. Or, watch the programme at home with an online pass.

  • Glasgow Short Film Festival: 22 – 26 March

GSFF is back for its 16th iteration with a focus on contemporary Lebanese short films and a rare live performance from Beirut-based gender-defying queer dancer Khansa, a retrospective of award-winning artist duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, wild world-building animations and cinematic existentialism through innovative A.I. collaborations.

The festival will run at flagship venues across Glasgow, including GFT, CCA and Civic House. It will be accompanied by an Industry Programme of talks, masterclasses and screenings, including Festival Models in Times of Crisis led by GSFF’S Sanne Jehoul, Alchemy Film and Arts’ Rachael Disbury, and Beirut Shorts’ Nicolas Khabbaz, and a Meet the Industry Masterclass with panellists from FilmFest Dresden, Beirut Shorts, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, and more.

View the full programme and purchase tickets here. Sign up for Industry Accreditation here.

Scotland’s only festival dedicated to silent film will host its 13th edition in the country’s oldest purpose-built cinema, the Hippodrome in Bo’ness. The festival is renowned for its celebration of silent film with live music from world-class musicians. The 2023 edition will continue this tradition by bringing silver screen gems, world-class musicians and renowned experts on silent film to Bo’ness.

The festival will open with Blue Bird (1928), followed by a diverse line-up from the avant-garde to the thrilling. There will be accompanying discussions (such as ‘All Faces are Masks’: Visible Difference in Silent Cinema), walking tours and exhibitions.

View the programme and get your tickets here. 

With the first Inverclyde Film Festival taking place in March 2020, the second edition, at Greenock’s Waterfront Cinema, will build on the gradual return of audiences to physical cinemas with a focus on Scottish films. Billy Connelly features in two of the festival’s features (The Man Who Sued God and Mrs Brown) alongside film classics such as Maggie, That Sinking Feeling and Brave.

All tickets are £5 and can be purchased here.

For the first time in 16 years, an all-female team is leading the Cromarty Film Festival. The community festival returns with an inventive and exciting programme, ‘New Realities,’ featuring Scottish films including Bodybuilders Unfiltered and Waiting for the Buff to Rub Me Out.

This will be accompanied by anime (Goodbye Don Glees!), new films (Cocaine Bear, Rye Lane), a shorts programme, workshops (One Shot Filmmaking Workshops), talks (Team Spirit: Collectivism & Sport in North Korean Cinema) and much more. You won’t want to miss screenings projected on the Cromarty Lighthouse.

View the brochure here, and get tickets here.

April

As part of Climate Week North East, Take One Action is exploring stories at the heart of positive social change through film screenings and conversations at the Barn Aberdeenshire, including Foragers, Delikado and The Mushroom Speaks.

For access measures and to book a place, visit the Barn website.  There is a Sliding Scale Ticket price for this event of £0 – £10.

Scotland’s festival of experimental film will return to the Scottish Borders with an international programme of cinema screenings, moving-image exhibitions and live performances – plus a Festival Ceilidh!

Head to Hawick to join Alchemy Film & Arts for: the world premiere of a new commission by Natasha Thembiso Ruwona; new films by Alchemy arts in residence Julia Parks; plus live performances from Maxime Jean-Baptiste and screenings including current Maragaret Tait Award nominees Rhona Muhlebach and George Finlay Ramsay.

View the full programme here.

Coming soon…

May

 

Back to News