Glasgow Film Festival Announces Opening and Closing Films

Submitted by edg on Fri, 6 Jan '17 12.55am

The European Premiere of coming-of-age story "Handsome Devil" will open the thirteenth annual Glasgow Film Festival, this year running 15th to 26th February. Directed by John Butler (The Stag), the film stars Andrew Scott, alongside rising stars Fionn O’Shea and Nicholas Galitzine.

The festival will close with the World Premiere of "Mad To Be Normal" starring David Tennant as maverick Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing. Laing's pioneering methods for medication-free treatment of schizophrenia earned him the moniker of the “high priest of anti-psychiatry” in the swinging Sixties. The film also stars Elisabeth Moss, Michael Gambon and Gabriel Byrne. It is directed by Robert Mullan (We Will Sing; Gitel) who will join Tennant and other cast members at the Closing Gala.

Glasgow Film Festival also announced the Scottish premiere of "The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger". The result of a five-year project by Tilda Swinton, Colin MacCabe and Christopher Roth in collaboration with the composer Simon Fisher Turner, The Seasons in Quincy is comprised of four essay films, each taking different aspects of Berger’s life, and intellectual and creative development, in the Haute-Savoie.

Glasgow Film Festival Co-Director Allison Gardner said: “Handsome Devil is a real crowd-pleaser with a joyous spirit that makes it a perfect film to launch the festival. David Tennant gives an absolutely stunning performance as R.D. Laing in Mad To Be Normal and it seems only fitting that Glasgow should have the honour of hosting the premiere of a film about one of the city’s most complex, charismatic figures.”

Tickets for the Opening and Closing Galas go on sale at 10am on Monday 9 January.

The full programme for Glasgow Film Festival 2017 will be announced on the 18th January.