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Glasgow Film Festival 2016 – News of Opening and Closing Galas

Hail, Caesar!  UK premiere opens the festival

Anomalisa,winner of the Grand Special Jury Prize 2015 at Venice Film Festival closes the festival.

Glasgow Film Festival is delighted to announce its choice of films for the 2016 Opening and Closing Galas. The festival, which is supported by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, Creative Scotland, the BFI and EventScotland, has chosen Hail, Caesar!, the UK premiere of the hugely-anticipated newest film from the Coen Brothers, starring George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton, for the 2016 Opening Gala, fresh from its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The UK premiere of Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman’s utterly unique stop-motion animation, which won the Grand Special Jury Prize 2015 at Venice Film Festival, will close the festival. Both films will go on sale to the public on Monday 18 January. The full festival programme will be announced on Wednesday 20 January and go on sale on Monday 25 January. Guests attending screenings will be confirmed ahead of the festival

COMMENT:
Allison Gardner, Festival Co-Director, said ‘We like to open the festival with something special to build audience excitement for the fortnight of films to come, and Hail, Caesar! is as big and beautiful a film as you can get. We are absolutely delighted to be screening the Coens’ wonderful, all-star salute to Old Hollywood, and especially privileged to be hosting the film’s UK premiere. A rollicking good time to be had by everyone!’

Allan Hunter, Festival Co-Director, said ‘Charlie Kaufman has a rare ability to blow your mind and warm your heart at the same time. Anomalisa is a one of kind experience that finds incredible depths of human emotion in the plight of its stop-motion animated characters. I am so thrilled that we will be closing with the UK premiere of one of the year’s most unforgettable films.’

OPENING GALA: Hail, Caesar! **UK PREMIERE**

Wednesday 17 February (7pm, second screening 10.15pm) | GFT
 Hail, Caesar! takes place during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, during the studio system’s heyday, and features an all-star cast including Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatum. The comedy follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer who is presented with plenty of problems to fix. Renowned directors Joel and Ethan Coen have been a prominent fixture in international cinema for more than 30 years. After their sensational debut Blood Simple (1984), the Coen brothers have enjoyed international successes with audiences and critics alike for films such as Fargo (1996, Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay), No Country for Old Men (2007, three Academy Awards® in the categories Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film and Best Director), Burn After Reading (2008), A Serious Man (2009) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).
Hail, Caesar! is produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, and Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, through Mike Zoss Productions and Working Title Films. The film is released by Universal Pictures worldwide and will open in UK cinemas on 4 March 2016.

CLOSING GALA: Anomalisa **UK PREMIERE**

Sunday 28 February (7pm) | GFT
“The total achievement feels immense.” ★★★★★ THE GUARDIAN
“Predictably strange but soaringly profound.” ★★★★★ THE TELEGRAPH
This latest mesmerising masterwork from the beautiful mind of Charlie Kaufman is a one-of-a-kind romance. Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) is a customer services guru with a thriving career that takes him all over the country. However, everyone and everything seems the same to him: almost all the other characters are voiced by Tom Noonan – the hotel receptionist, an ex-girlfriend, even Michael’s wife and son. On a speaking tour in Cincinnati, Michael checks into the Hotel Fregoli and meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Lisa has a voice of her own. Lisa is extraordinary, and Michael knows it from the moment he sees her – love is definitely in the air, but nothing is straightforward.  Topping many of 2015’s films of the year lists after a rapturous reception at Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Special Jury Prize, Anomalisa offers a plaintive exploration of all the little things that make us human. It is funny, charming, surprisingly erotic, deeply moving and completely, wonderfully irresistible. Distributed by Curzon, Anomalisa opens in UK cinemas on 11 March 2016.

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL WOULD LIKE TO THANK ITS MAJOR PARTNERS:

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) is the official destination marketing organisation (DMO) for the city of Glasgow. As custodian of the PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW brand, GCMB works with partners, stakeholders and businesses to position and promote Glasgow across national and international markets as one of Europe’s most vibrant, dynamic and diverse cities in which to live, work, study, invest and visit. For more information, visit: www.peoplemakeglasgow.com.

EventScotland is the national events agency. EventScotland is working to make Scotland one of the world’s leading event destinations. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the economy by attracting more visitors. EventScotland is part of VisitScotland, the national tourism organisation which markets Scotland as a tourism destination across the world, gives support to the tourism industry and brings sustainable tourism growth to Scotland. www.EventScotland.org

Creative Scotland is the national organisation that funds and supports the development of Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries.  Creative Scotland has four objectives: to develop and sustain a thriving environment for the arts, screen and creative industries; to support excellence in artistic and creative practice; to improve access to and participation in, arts and creative activity; and to deliver our services efficiently and effectively.  In 2013/14 we will distribute over £100m in funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.   For further information on Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com.  

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive, by connecting audiences to the widest choice of British and World cinema; by preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations; by championing emerging and world class film makers in the UK; by investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work; by promoting British film and talent to the world, and by growing the next generation of film makers and audiences.  The BFI is now a Government arm’s-length body and distributor of Lottery funds for film. The BFI serves a public role which covers the cultural, creative and economic aspects of film in the UK. It delivers this role as the UK-wide organisation for film, a charity core funded by Government; by providing Lottery and Government funds for film across the UK, and by working with partners to advance the position of film in the UK. www.bfi.org.uk

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