Annie Ross, Glasgow Film Festival, Tuesday 21st February, Premier

Opening

The Festival will open on Thursday 16 February with the UK premiere of Your Sister's Sister, the latest feature from Humpday creator Lynn Shelton who was recently chosen by Variety as one of their '10 Directors to Watch in 2012'. Arriving in Glasgow after its Sundance screening, Your Sister's Sister is a StudioCanal release and stars Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass in a painfully funny and utterly captivating tale of bad timing, broken hearts and the healing power of love. Shelton's most impressive work to date has been winning rave reviews and glowing comparisons to the films of Woody Allen and Eric Rohmer.

The Legendary Annie Ross Comes Back To Oran Mor

Annie Ross, sister of famous Scottish entertainer Jimmy Logan, needs no introduction to jazz lovers around the world after being part of the legendary trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

In July last year Oran Mor was privileged to hold a sold out concert with Annie Ross which was being filmed as part of a fascinating documentary about her life, "No One But Me". That documentary is now getting a world premier at the Glasgow Film Festival at 5pm on Tuesday 21st February.

Annie Ross GFF More Information

GFF 2012 - Crossing the Line

Closing Gala

The Festival's closing gala on Sunday 26 February is Le Havre (an Artificial Eye release), the latest deadpan delight from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaeki which won the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in France and a host of international awards. Kaurismaeki regular Andre Wilms plays a warmhearted shoeshine who befriends a young African immigrant on the run from the authorities. Their friendship is the basis of an intricately woven tale full of priceless poker-faced comedy and heartrending tenderness. "I think the superb quality and international credentials of the opening and closing galas reflect the very special programme of films and events that we have put together for the 2012 Festival," states Glasgow Film Festival Co-director Allison Gardner. "The Festival goes from strength to strength and the whole team are very focused on satisfying the great expectations that now attend the event."

Premieres

The 2012 Festival will host 239 films and events in a programme that includes a record number of UK and European premieres. Among the many films receiving their first British screening at Glasgow are the eagerly-awaited Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy, romantic comedy The Decoy Bride co-starring David Tennant and Kelly Macdonald, acclaimed American independent drama In the Family, sumptuous period drama Bel Ami starring Robert Pattinson, award-winner Cloudburst with Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker, controversial documentaries Better this World and How to Die in Oregon and the highly acclaimed animated feature Wrinkles (Arrugas), one of the great international discoveries of the past year.

"The guiding philosophy at Glasgow has always been to showcase the very best of world cinema without any prejudice or snobbery," says Glasgow Film Festival co-director Allan Hunter. "This year's programme is a rich and diverse selection of prize-winners and premieres from around the globe and around the corner. We bring the best films we can to Glasgow and provide a platform for the finest Scottish films to engage the world."

Scottish Work

The Scottish work within the programme ranges from a world premiere of the brilliant documentary No One But Me on legendary jazz singer Annie Ross to the UK premiere of Zam Salim's debut feature Up There, Scots writer/director Simon Arthur's inspired American indie drama Silver Tongues, inventive low-budget features Electric Man and Night is Day and a rare revival of the 1976 documentary Big Banana Feet in tribute to director, cinematographer and stills photographer David Peat, the 2011 recipient of the BAFTA in Scotland craft award. GFF will also screen Alexander Mackendrick's The Maggie in the unique surroundings of The Tall Ship on the River Clyde.

Glasgow Film Festival has grown and developed a loyal audience throughout its existence and has now matured into a month-long celebration of cinema with Glasgow Youth Film Festival (5-15 February) and Glasgow Short Film Festival (9-12) preceding the main event. "The notion that Glasgow would become a Festival of Festivals has really flourished this year with both the Short Film Festival and Youth Film Festival rightly achieving such a level of popularity that they needed to stand alone and find more room to grow," observes Co-director Allan Hunter. "Both Festivals have excellent programmes this year and of course the Festival itself still has many different events under the one umbrella."

Festivals within the Festival

Further highlights within the 2012 programme include a bumper crop of ghoulish delights from FrightFest with UK premieres of Aussie chiller Crawl and Gareth Evans' much admired The Raid. Fashion and Film promises high fashion and high heels with a must-see documentary on our obsession with shoes, and portraits of icons Vivienne Westwood, Diana Vreeland and Ozwald Boateng. Last year's fantastically successful Superheroes in Glasgow returns in the form of Kapow!@GFF. Dedicated to all things comic and superhero it's once again expertly curated by GFF ambassador and local hero Mark Millar. Glasgow Music and Film Festival returns with cutting-edge documentaries and an unmissable live appearances from US art rockers High Places and Umberto, who will be performing a live soundtrack to a secret film.

Paul Bush OBE, Chief Operating Officer for EventScotland said: "Glasgow Film Festival is a key date on Scotland's cultural calendar, and it is one of the first major international events in 2012, the Year of Creative Scotland. Scotland is the perfect stage for events, and the strength of the GFF programme is testament to that fact, with Glasgow Short Film Festival and Glasgow Youth Film Festival contributing to a month-long celebration of cinematic talent."

Crossing the Line

2012 programme addition Crossing the Line explores the crossover between cinema and visual art and includes works by Ben Rivers, Jan Svankmajer and the unique commission from 2011 Margaret Tait Award-winner Anne-Marie Copestake, And Under That.

Country focus - Germany

The country focus in 2012 is Welcome to Germany, a stunning selection of new features showcasing the very best of contemporary German cinema. Developed in partnership with the Goethe Institut, the focus comprises prize-winners, Festival favourites and box-office hits including Maggie Peren's Toronto discovery Colour of the Ocean (Die Farbe des Ozean), Andreas Dresen's Cannes triumph Stopped on Track (Halt auf freier Strecke), Ulrich Kohler's Berlin prize-winner Sleeping Sickness (Schlafkrankheit) and the award-winning Vincent Wants to Sea (Vincent will Meer). Some old-fashioned glamour is introduced by Weimarvellous, a weekend of entertainment and experiment inspired by the cabaret movement of Weimar Republic Germany, curated and sponsored by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with Cinema Spectacular and GFF.

Gene Kelly Retrospective

The Festival has previously announced that the 2012 retrospective will honour Gene Kelly in the year that marks the centenary of his birth. Kelly remains the quintessential MGM song 'n' dance man who took dance on film to new heights with his inventive choreography, dazzling direction and amazing athleticism. The retrospective includes all the Kelly classics, from On the Town (1949) to An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Brigadoon (1954). Festival audiences will also have a chance to put on their dancing shoes and attend the Gene Kelly Ceilidh.

Vintage Cinema

Dedication to vintage cinema at the Festival continues with the Out of the Past strand, a showcase for new and restored prints of cinema classics. Highlights this year include a digital restoration of Death Watch (La mort en direct) (1980), Bertrand Tavernier's prescient tale of reality television's corrosive excesses. Shot in Glasgow and starring Harvey Keitel, Romy Schneider and Harry Dean Stanton, the film has long been unavailable in the UK, a situation that will be remedied by Glasgow-based distributor Park Circus who plan a cinema re-release in 2012.

Festival Guests

Bertrand Tavernier has confirmed his attendance at Glasgow and leads a list of confirmed Festival guests that includes Andreas Dresen, Dexter Fletcher and Irvine Welsh.

Glasgow Film Festival runs from 16-26 February 2012. For a full line up of screenings and events see glasgowfilm.org/festival

Tickets are on sale from 19 January from the Box Office, GFT, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, by phone on 0141 332 6535 or from Box Office