Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) has announced the line-up of must-see films that audiences will be able to enjoy on the big screen when the cinema reopens on Monday 24 May.
Aside from a brief period last autumn when lockdown restrictions in Scotland were temporarily eased, GFT’s doors have been closed since March 2020. The cinema will reopen with enhanced safety measures in place, offering film fans in Glasgow the first chance to watch award-winning new releases as they were intended to be seen: on a big screen.
Highlights of the reopening programme include Nomadland, the hotly anticipated new film from Chloé Zhao which recently landed Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, as well as Oscar-winning performances from Riz Ahmed as a drummer who loses his hearing in Sound of Metal, Daniel Kaluuya as Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah and Youn Yuh-jung as a charmingly foul-mouthed grandmother in Minari. Award-winning director Kelly Reichardt’s long-awaited First Cow, a gripping and glorious story of friendship and petty crime in the Old West, also arrives at GFT in May.
GFT is known for its insightful Q&A screenings, with the cinema having hosted a multitude of high-profile guests over the years, including David Lynch, Lynne Ramsay, Quentin Tarantino, Jessie Buckley, Saoirse Ronan and David Tennant. While face-to-face interviews will not resume yet, audiences will still have the opportunity to hear directly from the creatives behind the films.
Thursday 27 May brings a treat for Glaswegian football fans with a one-off screening of Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, the new documentary directed by the football legend’s son Jason Ferguson, including a recorded Q&A with Sir Alex Ferguson. On Friday 28 May, film fans will hear from Sound of Metal writer/director Darius Marder and actors Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke and Paul Raci in a recorded Q&A after the film screening. A special screening of Billie Piper’s directorial debut Rare Beasts on Monday 30 May will include a recorded Q&A with Piper about the making of her darkly funny ‘anti-romcom’.
Finally, Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar (Pain and Glory) returns to the big screen with The Human Voice, a short film made over nine days during lockdown in Madrid, and the director’s first film in the English language. Screenings will be followed by a recorded Q&A with Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton, hosted by film critic Mark Kermode.
GFT will be following all Scottish Government health and safety regulations relating to Covid-19. This means reduced seating capacity in the cinema with seats kept vacant to allow safe social distancing of customers, social distancing measures such as one-way systems throughout the building, and longer breaks between screenings to allow extra time for cleaning.
Although the cinema has been closed for the longest period in its 82-year history, Glasgow Film has continued to engage with Glasgow’s film communities and audiences online, delivering a curated digital programme through Glasgow Film At Home, a new online streaming platform launched in November last year. This year’s edition of Glasgow Film Festival took place entirely online with 10 World Premieres, 3 European Premieres and 49 UK Premieres screening on Glasgow Film At Home from 24 February to 7 March. More than 41,000 people from across the UK attended the online festival.
Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday 12 May at 12pm (noon) from the GFT.