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Glasgow Film Festival 2015 Critics’ Choice. Top Ten Films

Inaugural Critics’ Choice

 Glasgow Film Festival today (5 March, 2015) announced their inaugural Critics’ Choice: a list of the ten films which scored most highly in a vote from GFF’s accredited press corps.
 
All accredited reviewers attending the festival were invited to submit their three favourite films from the whole programme, with numerical values assigned to each vote depending on the number of press tickets each participant had used at the festival. 40 writers eventually took part – a full list of participants is included below. Votes were collected both on Twitter and via email.

Glasgow Film Festival Critics’ Choice 2015:

It Follows (US, dir. David Robert Mitchell) An intelligent take on the teen horror genre that works on a number of levels and has already enjoyed great success at Cannes Film Festival. Mitchell visited the festival this year.

Clouds of Sils Maria (France/Switzerland/Germany, dir. Olivier Assayas) Kristen Stewart became the first American actor in history to win a Cesar Awards for her role in this complex, compelling drama, which had its UK Premiere at the festival.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (US/Iran, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour), lushly shot in black and white, this unusual film follows a lonely, hijab-wearing vampire who stalks her prey around a fictional Iranian ghost town on a skateboard.

While We’re Young (US, dir. Noah Baumbach) Baumbach’s inter-generational hipster comedy, starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts and Adam Driver, had its European Premiere at the Festival, as the Opening Gala.

Girlhood (France, dir. Céline Sciamma) A beautiful coming of age story following a girl gang growing up in the Parisian banlieues. Lead actresses Assa Sylla and Karidja Toure took part in a Q&A following the festival screening.
Mommy (Canada 2014, dir. Xavier Dolan) Audacious, emotionally captivating and packed with brilliant performances, Xavier Dolan’s latest, Cannes prize-winning feature was also a big hit with the GFF audience on social media.

Theeb (Jordan/Qatar/UAE/UK 2014, dir. Naji Abu Nowar) A drama reflecting on colonialism from the point of view of a young Bedouin Arab boy, Naji Abu Nowar’s directorial debut was also nominated for the inaugural GFF Audience Award.

=JOINT: Eden (France 2014, dir. Mia Hansen-Løve) and Wild Tales(Argentina/Spain 2014, dir. Damián Szifrón).  Charting the rise of the French electronic dance music scene in 1990s Paris, Hansen-Løve’s Daft Punk-inspired film Eden formed part of GFF15’s Sound & Vision strand. Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón’s biting black comedy built upon six short, masterfully interwoven tales, was shortlisted for the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Jodorowsky’s Dune (USA/France 2014, dir. Frank Pavich) Delving into the history behind Alejandro Jodorowsky’s vision for an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic novel Dune, this fascinating documentary pays homage to one of the great lost projects of cinematic history.

Here were my favourites:

William McIlvanney ‘Living With Words’

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This section: Cinema, Glasgow Film Festival 2015