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Festival coverage

Glasgow Film Festival

1 March – 12 March 2023

Girl opened the 2023 festival
Girl opened the 2023 festival

2023's Glasgow Film Festival opens with Adura Onashile's Girl and closes with Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society. The popular Special Events strand is back, so viewers can look forward to some unusual adventures, plus there's the Surprise Movie to keep everybody guessing. Special guests on the red carpet will include Kelly Macdonald, Emily Watson, Monica Dolan, Alistair McGowan, James Cosmo, Le’Shantey Bonsu, Mark Cousins, Carol Morley, Matt Johnson and Daniel Goldhaber.

The festival runs from 1 to 12 March.

Other years (20)

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Latest reviews

  • Out Of Darkness
    Review preview for Out Of Darkness

    We stumble through the night with only guttering flames to guide us, straining to catch the tiniest sound that might give us a hint of what’s out there.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    In the Old Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. When they suspect a malevolent, mystical, being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisaged.
  • Onyx The Fortuitous And The Talisman Of Souls
    Review preview for Onyx The Fortuitous And The Talisman Of Souls

    Crucially, there is enough here that doesn’t depend on in-jokes to give it some broader entertainment value.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Onyx joins a group of fellow occultists to attend a dark ritual at the mansion of their idol, Bartok. Suspecting Bartok's nefarious intentions, Onyx is suddenly immersed in a world of monsters, mystery, and mayhem.
  • Mother And Son
    Review preview for Mother And Son

    Filled with strong sentiment but without sentimentality.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
  • War Pony
    Review preview for War Pony

    Everything here has a depth, a richness.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. At 23, Bill just wants to make something of himself. Whether it’s delivering goods or breeding poodles, he is determined to hustle his way to the American Dream. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Matho can’t wait to become a man.
  • Sisu
    Review preview for Sisu

    The only way to pull off a film like this is to approach it with absolute confidence. Jalmari Helander does a fantastic job.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    After a solitary prospector strikes gold in the wilderness of Lapland, he runs into a retreating detachment of Nazi soldiers who set their sights on claiming the bounty. Unfortunately for the stormtroopers, this is no ordinary miner.
  • La Syndicaliste
    Review preview for La Syndicaliste

    Sustained by a bravura performance from Isabelle Huppert in a total change of register from her last comedic outing with the same director Mama Weed, the new collaboration never puts a frame out of place.

    Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
    The true story of of a whistleblower who shook the French nuclear industry.
  • The Eight Mountains
    Review preview for The Eight Mountains

    In their quietly devastating manner, Groeningen and Vandermeersch examine the fluid nature of our confusion and confidence over our place in the world.

    Jeremy Mathews · 5 out of 5
    The Eight Mountains is the story of a friendship. Of children becoming men who try to erase the footprints of their fathers, but who, through the twists and turns they take, always end up returning home.
  • Polite Society
    Review preview for Polite Society

    Manzoor operates a controlled chaos that blends the colour and splendour of Bollywood with sly British satire reminiscent of early Edgar Wright.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Aspiring martial artist Ria Khan believes she must save her older sister, Lena, from her impending marriage. With the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.
  • Irati
    Review preview for Irati

    A tale that has a textured solidity, a mythological weight.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    Christian nobleman Eneko must fulfil the promise he made to his late father, to protect and lead his people into the new era. To do so, he must recover his father’s body, buried next to Charlemagne's treasure. However, despite his faith, he needs the help of his childhood friend, the pagan Irati.
  • Amerikatsi
    Review preview for Amerikatsi

    The physicality extends past harm to outright comedy.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    A refugee returning to Armenia after growing up in the US is arrested and sentenced to prison for wearing a tie. When an earthquake ruptures the prison wall, he begins to spy on the couple in the adjacent apartment, gradually forging a connection with a culture he knew nothing about.

A–Z of Glasgow Film Festival 2023 reviews

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