The first time I went to the Cannes Film Festival, I was encouraged to seek out a small, independent, black and white American film. It was called She’s Gotta Have It and was directed by a promising young fellow called Spike Lee. It became the talk of the town. The first time I went to the Sundance Film Festival, I queued in the bitter Utah cold for a late-night screening of a film that had already started to attract its share of buzz. The director was visible in a crowded foyer. A couple of the stars were present. In the chaos of that evening, I secured one of the last two seats for the first public screening of Reservoir Dogs.

You get my point. Festivals are wonderful places of discovery. You can see a completely unknown film that becomes a new favourite by a talent who is going to blaze across the screen for decades to come. One of the great pleasures of being co-director of the Glasgow Film Festival is playing a tiny part in that process of discovery. There are films that you believe deserve to raise the roof when shown to a full cinema. We felt that last year with Jono McLeod’s My Old School. We felt it in 2018 with Felipe Bustos Sierra’s documentary Nae Pasaran which gave us the most emotional closing night in the festival’s history.

There are hundreds of new films out there and dozens of ways of watching them. That makes festivals more important than ever. Everything in the Glasgow Film Festival programme has been chosen and championed, carefully curated to cut through the often-bewildering range of choices out there. A festival screening is like a stamp of approval.

^{Pictures: Eoin Carey}

Glasgow has always prided itself on programming without prejudice, showing the best of world cinema and the finest films made right around the corner. We’ve shown works by Lynne Ramsay and May Miles Thomas, John McPhail and Armando Iannucci. This festival is a vital part of the film scene in Scotland. As it looks towards celebrating its 20th edition in 2024, it will play an even bigger role in mentoring local talent, supporting the indigenous production industry, and becoming the greatest showcase for Scottish filmmaking. I leave my role as co-director this year but can’t wait to see what happens next.

Allan Hunter is co-director of Glasgow Film Festival which runs from Wednesday 1–Sunday 12 March.