Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) has announced the first films for its 2027 edition, taking place from 24 February to 7 March. Scotland’s leading international celebration of film has confirmed its Country Focus theme, shining a spotlight on Canadian cinema, as well as its highly anticipated Retrospective Programme, which gives audiences the chance to catch classic films back on the big screen for free.

Audiences can expect to discover standout films and hidden gems from across the global festival circuit inside the home of the festival, and Scotland’s original independent cinema, Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT).

GFF will strengthen its city-centre presence through a new partnership with Omniplex Cinemas, taking over an entire floor of its Renfrew Street venue. With four screens showcasing films from across the programme, the partnership will significantly increase festival capacity and help make the wider Sauchiehall Street Culture and Heritage District an essential destination for film fans during GFF.

The festival’s Industry Focus is Scotland’s largest conference for film and the wider screen industries, and the 2027 edition will add another valuable opportunity for filmmakers to its programme. Taking place from 1 to 5 March, Industry Focus will feature its first International Co-Production Pitch, a pilot initiative to showcase exciting feature film pitches from filmmakers across the UK and worldwide.

The pilot welcomes submissions from producers worldwide who are seeking a co-producer and will give selected filmmakers the opportunity to pitch their project to financiers, sales agents, distributors, local and international producers, and other funders at the festival.

Projects must be feature-length and have already secured some finance; this includes development funding. International projects applying to the pitch must be interested in co-producing with the UK. For more details, please visit glasgowfilmfest.org/international-coproduction-pitch.

The pitch will sit within the festival’s new Co-Production Day, dedicated to showcasing the benefits of working with producers in Scotland and the rest of the UK. The schedule of events will also spotlight countries outside of the UK, detailing filmmaking opportunities and funding available to visiting productions internationally. Further details will be announced along with the full Industry Focus programme on Wednesday 27 January.

GFF27’s retrospective theme is ‘Somebody’s Watching: Surveillance, Voyeurism and Performance’, featuring a selection of classics from the 1950s to the present day that explore cinema’s unique obsession with watching and being watched. Highlights from the programme include Michael Radford’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 (1984), a chilling vision of authoritarianism; Michelangelo Antonioni’s acclaimed thriller Blow-Up (1966), following a photographer who believes he has captured evidence of a murder; and Richard Linklater’s animated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly (2006), starring Keanu Reeves in a story of identity and paranoia.

Also screening will be Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed independent drama Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), exploring intimacy and relationships; and Youssef Chahine’s Egyptian classic Cairo Station (1958), exploring obsession and alienation.

Tickets for the free retrospective titles cannot be booked in advance and are available from GFT Box Office on the morning of the screening. Films shown within the Retrospective Programme may be subject to change, with the full selection yet to be announced.

GFF27 will be the 23rd edition of the festival and will spotlight films from Canada, with the Country Focus theme ‘Great Takes: Canadian Cinema’, sponsored by the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom and the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation. A hand-picked selection will be showcased at the award-winning festival, including the UK premiere of Leah Nelson’s animated drama Tangles, based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, which explores the impact of Alzheimer’s as a young queer woman returns home to care for her mother. Full of irreverent humour and poignant emotion, the film features a star-studded cast, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen, Beanie Feldstein and Sarah Silverman.

Also featured will be The Stunt Driver, a comedy-drama starring Jay Baruchel as real-life daredevil Ken Carter, who attempts a seemingly impossible rocket-car jump across the St. Lawrence River; L’autre, a French Canadian thriller with a touch of Cronenbergian body-horror about a cancer patient recovering from surgery; and A Safe Distance, Gloria Mercer’s debut crime thriller about a woman who befriends a pair of notorious fugitives after being abandoned by her boyfriend in the forest.

The full selection of Country Focus titles is yet to be announced, and tickets will go on sale with the full GFF27 programme in January.

Paul Gallagher, Head of Programme for Glasgow Film, said: “Cinema is by its nature a voyeuristic medium, and there is a rich history of filmmakers wrestling with that uneasy reality.

“In our current moment we are all increasingly aware of being watched, both with and without our consent, so it feels like a perfect time to ask what cinema has taught us about the perils and pleasures of looking and being looked at.

“I am also delighted with the spread of new films we are showcasing in our ‘Great Takes: Canadian Cinema’ strand. From world-class animation to bold drama to genre-pushing documentaries, these Canadian filmmakers are at the top of their game, and I can’t wait for Glasgow audiences to discover them.”

Debbie Aitken, Head of Operations for Glasgow Film Festival, said: “Glasgow Film Festival’s mission is to not only show outstanding cinema, but to help bring new stories to audiences around the world. Our new International Co-Production Pitch pilot is a step towards reaching that ambition by connecting Scotland’s screen sector with international partners and helping bold new projects to move forward.“

The festival has welcomed a host of film stars to the city, including, in recent years, James McAvoy, Toni Collette, Viggo Mortensen, Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Tim Roth, Kōki, Lynne Ramsay, Takehiro Hira, Alfred Enoch, Adura Onashile, and Nida Manzoor.

GFF is Scotland’s flagship film festival and is run by Glasgow Film, a charity which also operates Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow Film Festival is made possible by support from Screen Scotland, awarding National Lottery funding, and Glasgow Life.

The full GFF27 programme will be announced on Wednesday 20 January.