The Glasgow Short Film Festival (GSFF) has launched its full programme, featuring a line-up of diverse, inclusive and engaging films from first-time and established directors. Taking place from Wednesday 19–Sunday 23 March, tickets for screenings are on sale now.

Kicking off the festival is The Disco: A Portrait Of Simon Eilbeck, a new documentary following Queer d/Deaf DJ Simon Eilbeck. Merging 16mm and improvised compositions, it encounters members of the Queer, Trans, alternative and non-binary communities who convene at Eilbeck’s monthly club night Hot Mess. 

Retrospectives at the festival include a spotlight on the Indonesian filmmaker Riar Rizaldi, (Tellurian Drama, Larung), who will participate in two screenings of his work alongside a live sound-based performance. Relatedly, Minikino Film Week (a Bali-based international short film festival) has partnered with GSFF to offer a glimpse into Indonesia in the strand Indonesian Spice Route, with films that ‘weave stories of resilience, longing, and self-discovery’. 

Joining them will be specially curated seasons from writer Xuanlin Tham, writer Ren Scateni and film programmer Milda Valiulytė. Meanwhile Scottish Opera will premier its first animated short, Josefine (main picture), inspired by Franz Kafka’s final short story ‘Josefine The Singer’.  

Also in the line-up are regular features For Shorts & Giggles, Family Shorts and Visible Cinema; a collaboration with Palestinian collective Gaza Film Unit; the horror strand Scared Shortless; Speculative Ireland, curated by Oisín Kealy; and the newly established Bill Douglas Award, alongside a slew of other awards. This year’s edition will take place across three venues: Glasgow Film Theatre, Civic House and Grosvenor Picture House. 

Festival director Matt Lloyd said, ‘I can’t wait to unleash this programme on Glasgow. Touching on themes of grief, loss, community and speculative history, it offers a wide-ranging response to, and engagement with, contemporary realities and challenges. This has been a truly collaborative effort between programmers Ren Scateni and Oisín Kealy and a range of independent curators and partners, some returning, some new to GSFF. 

‘I’m particularly thrilled by our collaboration with Minikino Film Week, in which we host Indonesian filmmaker Haris Yuliyanto for two weeks, at Cove Park and here in Glasgow, and which will in turn see us send a Scottish filmmaker to Bali in September, and I’m immensely proud to be unveiling a new artist moving image commission by Glasgow-based Kialy Tihngang. Above all, GSFF exists to nurture and inspire diverse forms of cinematic expression, in Scotland and around the world, and these two initiatives do exactly that.’

Glasgow Short Film Festival, various venues, Wednesday 19–Sunday 23 March.