Film festival kicks off in Glasgow Published duration 17 February 2011

image caption Romantic comedy You Instead, by Scots director David Mackenzie, is set at a music festival

The seventh Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) starts later, with a string of new films including two much anticipated Scottish features.

More than 250 films are to be shown across the city over the next 10 days.

They include a retrospective of the films of Meryl Streep and the newly-restored classic The African Queen.

Scottish films include You Instead - a romantic comedy filmed at T in the Park - and The Eagle, which is a drama set in Roman-occupied Britain.

Festival organisers said they were pleased with box office sales.

Ticket sales rose to more than 30,000 last year - an increase of 23% on 2009.

The first Glasgow festival in 2005 pulled in just 6,000 people.

'All welcome'

Allan Hunter, GFF co-director, said it was an "inclusive" festival, with something for everybody.

"There are no prejudices," he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.

"It embraces all cinema from something that might be considered a challenging art house film to a really big mainstream Holywood blockbuster."

Mr Hunter said the festival offered a breadth of events, with director Ken Loach, actress Shirley Henderson and actor Aidan Gillen introducing their latest films, and film historian and showman Bruce Goldstein making The Tingler screening an "interactive experience" for the audience.

He added: "It's not just for a certain type of cinema-goer or a certain type of film.

"It's come one, come all, see The Eagle, see the Le Quattro Volte - the Italian film - and you're all welcome."