Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) will mark its 20th edition this year with a host of celebratory screenings, alongside new movies from both homegrown and international directors. The theme of anniversaries runs through 2024's GFF as the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), the festival headquarters, celebrates 50 years since it opened its doors. Meanwhile, the building housing the GFT, originally known as The Cosmo, raises a glass to its 85th year. 

Opening the festival on Wednesday 28 February is Rose Glass’ latest film Love Lies Bleeding, the hotly anticipated queer drama starring Kristen Stewart and Katy M O'Brian as a lovestruck couple sucked into a web of crime and violence. Gathering steam on the festival circuit, it looks to be an admirable follow-up to Glass’ electrifying horror debut Saint Maud.

Closing the festival on Sunday 10 March is Janey, a homegrown documentary from John Archer which follows the critically acclaimed comedian Janey Godley embarking on her Not Dead Yet tour while publicly undergoing cancer treatment. Imbued with Godley’s trademark acerbic sense of humour, it should prove to be hard hitting, insightful and deeply funny. 

Taking the lead in the retrospective strand of the festival is the bona fide Technicolor marvel The Wizard Of Oz (Thursday 7 March) and John Waters’ cause célèbre Female Trouble (Friday 8 March), the former marking the 85th anniversary of The Cosmo and the latter marking the date when the GFT opened its doors. They’ll be joined in the retrospective camp by highlights like Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave (Sunday 10 March), Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher (Sunday 10 March), David Cronenberg’s A History Of Violence, and Quentin Tarantino’s post-modern classic Pulp Fiction (Thursday 7 March). 

In Scottish cinema, the festival will welcome Tummy Monster, a surreal-looking feature from Glasgow filmmaker Ciaran Lyons which follows an egocentric tattoo artist (Lorn Macdonald) in a strange battle of wills with an international popstar. Alongside Tummy Monster’s undeniably interesting premise, other films hailing from Scotland this year include Kevin Macdonald’s High And Low (Tuesday 5 March), Jack Archer’s filmmaking doc Bill Douglas: My Friend (Friday 8 March) and a restored version of Billy Connolly: Big Banana Feet (Sunday 3 March). 

In international cinema is Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt (Sunday 3 March), Alan Friel’s psychological thriller Woken (Sunday 3 March) and The Teacher (Monday 4 March) from UK-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi, amongst others. Each year, the festival explores a specific country’s cinematic history, and 2024's country of focus is Czechia. This strand will include Věra Chytilová’s raucous feminist classic Daisies (Tuesday 5 March) alongside contemporary Czechian cinema such as Restore Point (Saturday 2 March) and Brothers (Friday 1 March).

Screening alongside GFF is FrightFest, a festival celebrating the world of horror, which will run from Thursday 7– Saturday 9 March. 

Glasgow Film Festival will run from Wednesday 28 February–Sunday 10 March. Visit GFF's official site for the full programme.