Cornish horror with a time-travel flair, a documentary of Glaswegian civil resistance, and an animated mouse having a midlife crisis are all on offer at the 22nd edition of the Glasgow Film Festival.
This is my first time covering the GFF for The Rolling Tape. The festival started in 2005 with 6,000 attendees and has since grown to 43,000. This year, we have 126 films over 12 days.
The festival opening gala this year is Everybody To Kenmure Street by Felipe Bustos Sierra, a mixture of documentary and narrative filmmaking on real life moment in a Glasgow community coming together to prevent the removal of two fellow neighbours.
Closing gala film is from Scotland’s own James McAvoy, in his directorial debut, California Schemin (my colleague Nandita’s review from TIFF 2025 is here). Based on the true story of two lads from Dundee who found their way into the music industry by pretending to be Americans, getting a record deal and appearing on MTV until they were unravelled.
A sense of local and global talent is on full display at GFF, as seen in The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford. When local traditions are threatened, Cornish folk horror meets time-travel with Rose of Nevada. We even travel to Paris for Fashion Week with Couture.
But within this exciting lineup of local and international talent is a wide range of retrospectives with the Truth to Power section, which has films such as All the President’s Men (1976) and Erin Brockovich (2000).
The festival will also celebrate Marilyn Monroe, showing her classic and early films.
The 22nd Glasgow Film Festival will take place from February 25 to March 8, 2026.
Update Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Credit to Steve Tanner