Lights, Camera, Action!

The Glasgow Film Festival 2012

The Glasgow Film Festival has come to an end for another year; this was the eighth year of the event, and it proves to be a real contender among the international festival scene.  This year’s festival ran from the 16^th to the 26^th of February across eighteen

different venues including a swimming pool and a Tall Ship, showing over two hundred films.

The Glasgow Film Festival allows film lovers to come along and witness the possible ‘next big thing’ in the film world, with success stories of previous years reaching cinemas nationwide.  But don’t fret if you narrowly missed out on the action this time round, just sit tight as I fill you in on the highlights from last week’s action and also make sure you free the 14th to the 24th of February 2013 for the next round of cinematic magic.        

This year’s festival provided all the usual trimmings such as The Glasgow short Film awards, films from all around the world and the ‘fests within the fest’ namely; short, youth, music and fright. 

This year’s film line-up featured five full length Scottish films, these included:

·        Irvine Welsh- ‘Ecstasy’

·        Sheree Folkson- ‘The Decoy Bride’

·        Simon Arthur- ‘Silver Tongues’

The 2012 festival also included a tribute to the magnificent Gene Kelly: who has an abundance of skills listing as: dancer, actor, singer, film director, producer, and choreographer. His accomplishments include the iconic ‘Singin’ in the rain’ and ‘An American in Paris’

The Glasgow Short Film Festival Awards this year again promised great variety, judging sixty-nine films including twenty Scottish premieres!  

The winner in the Scottish category winning a £750 cash prize was ‘The Making of a Longbird’ by Will Anderson. For a glimpse at the winning entry Click here.



Influential Bill Douglas

The awards were extra special this year as the international category for the awards was renamed in honour of the great Scottish film maker Bill Douglas.  This honour was chosen in the hope that the winning film would reflect the values and qualities found in Douglas’ work: honesty, innovation and the supremacy of image and sound in cinematic storytelling.

Bill Douglas died from cancer 1991, he was described as having the potential to be one of the most significant figures in modern cinema and portraying cinematic language that was as poetic as it was humane. 

His most famous work was the short stories of his life;

·        ‘My Childhood’ (1971)

·        ‘My Ain Folk’ (1973)

·        ‘My Way Home’ (1978)

Bill Douglas was and is a very inspiring film maker; unfortunately his talents have been somewhat under the radar for years but hopefully with this new honour of the renamed award, it will influence some fresh filmmakers out there to learn from the best.