Glasgow film festival closes with record admissions

Glasgow Film Festival achieved a total of over 40,000 admissions before closing with last night’s Scottish première of Under the Skin, festival organisers have announced, breaking their record in the festival’s tenth year.

The festival, which vies with Edinburgh International Film Festival for the title of Scotland’s best film festival, took place in Scotland’s largest city between 20 February and 2 March with a programme including 369 screenings, panel discussions, live performances and pop-up cinema events.

It opened with Wes Anderon’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and closed with Under the Skin, adapted by director Jonathan Glazer from a 2000 novel by Scottish writer Michel Faber. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as an inhuman predator prowling the streets of Glasgow for vulnerable men, and was previously screened at the Telluride, Venice, and Toronto film festivals.

The closing gala screening was followed by a Q&A with Glazer and producer James Wilson, and attendees in all three screens at Glasgow Festival Theatre were invited to an afterparty at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts.

“We’re all happily exhausted, inspired and glowing with gratitude”

Allan Hunter, co-director of the festival, said its “loyal and growing audience” had “more than confirmed their status as one of the best festival crowds in the world, greeting our guests with rousing welcomes and standing ovations, and, as the numbers show, turning up in droves”.

He said: “We put together a huge programme of UK and European premieres, vintage treats and the unique pop-up events that have become a GFF speciality, and our audiences have provided us with enough encouragement and love to keep the Festival going. We’re all happily exhausted, inspired and glowing with gratitude that such a marvellous team effort has been met by such a generous public vote of confidence.”

The festival was supported by the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, EventScotland, Creative Scotland, Homecoming Scotland, and the BFI.

Dates for the Glasgow Film Festival 2015 and final box office numbers for this year will be announced soon.