“We have all been overwhelmed by the response to this year’s festival. Audiences old and new have embraced the wide-ranging, carefully curated programme, allowing GFF to spread its wings across the whole of the United Kingdom,” commented co-director Allan Hunter at the end of his online fest that had attracted an audience of 37,773 audience to March 6. Online screenings of some titles will continue to March 10.
The festival featured 10 world premieres (which included a number of UK and Scottish docs), three European Premieres and 49 UK Premieres.
Documentaries were very prominent in the 2021 selection with Scottish highlights including the return of Scottish filmmaker Anthony Baxter (Flint, GFF 2020) for the world premiere of Eye of the Storm, which follows one of Scotland’s most gifted painters, James Morrison, through the last two years of his life.
The festival also presented the eagerly-anticipated world-premiere of feature documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, about the legendary Manchester United manager, directed by his son Jason Ferguson.
Other world premieres included Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, which brings to screen the life of ‘one of the least conventional front-persons in rock history’, directed by the late Poly’s daughter Celeste Bell and Paul Sng. In Luke White’s documentary Handsome (also world-prem), Nicholas Bourne and his brother Alex set off on a journey to meet other siblings with Down’s Syndrome, as Nicholas prepares to become Alex’s full-time, dedicated carer.
David Whitney’s Killing Escobar reconstructs Scottish mercenary and ex-SAS operative Peter McAleese’s mission to assassinate Pablo Escobar while ‘Bridging the Gap – Turbulence’ programme showcased four shorts from the Scottish Documentary Institute’s emerging talent initiative including.
Yer Old Faither by Adelaide Fringe director Heather Croall, about the life of her obstetrician and Scottish emigré father John, received its UK premiere. Stacey Lee’s documentary Underplayed is an intimate and revealing look at gender inequality in the electronic dance music scene, which features the city of Glasgow and local DJ Nightwave. Other highlights included the UK premiere of Tina, by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, about legendary singer Tina Turner.
The fiction Sweetheart by Marley Morrison was winner of the GFF 2021 Audience Award, the only prize handed out at GFF.
GFF Industry Focus took place 1 – 6 March and saw over 400 delegates, attending panels with a focus on diversity and representation, accessibility and how the film industry is moving forward during the Covid-19 pandemic. Guests included a spotlight interview with Oscar-winning screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Industry Focus was more accessible than ever before, the festival underlines, with a selection of Industry passes sponsored by MUBI made available to filmmakers under 30 from across the UK for just £10. Through the ‘Welcome To’ focus on Black Scottish films and filmmakers, the festival was able to offer a number of passes free of charge for Black filmmakers who had not previously attended the festival.
Allan Hunter, Glasgow Film Festival Co-director, commented: “We have all been overwhelmed by the response to this year’s festival. Audiences old and new have embraced the wide-ranging, carefully curated programme, allowing GFF to spread its wings across the whole of the United Kingdom. It has been fantastic to see the results of a great team effort rewarded in this way. It has been a real thrill for filmmakers to witness all the love and support for their work. It has all felt like some bright, warming sun amidst the global gloom and has underlined once again that Glasgow audiences are simply the best.”
Documentary director Anthony Baxter (Eye of the Storm) said: “It’s been great to be a part of Glasgow Film Festival this year. With the festival being online, we were perhaps able to attract a wider audience to the World Premiere of Eye of the Storm. Elderly people for example right across Scotland, who wouldn’t have been able to make it to the cinema. And people were also able to join a special global live ‘Zoom’ Q&A we organised as the filmmakers – with participants from New York, Frankfurt and even Grand Cayman!”
Next year’s dates were announced as March 2-13 2021.
