The full programme for Glasgow Film Festival has been announced and our Managing Editor Kevin Ibbotson-Wight has picked out 10 films that look particularly promising. Ranging from drama to comedy and from established filmmakers to those making their debut, there’s something for everyone.

Tornado (John Maclean/ UK/ 2025/ 100 mins) It’s been 10 years since John Maclean’s debut, the extraordinary revisionist western Slow West. With his second feature, the former Beta Band mastermind continues to play with genre, transposing the Samurai drama to 1790s Britain. Tornado (model and songwriter Kôki) travels the isle with her father’s Samurai puppet show. Opportunistically she steals gold from a gang led by Tim Roth and son Jack Lowden. Opening the festival, Tornado promises to be a fresh spin on the chase film and a homage to classic Ronin movies.

Ebony & Ivory (Jim Hosking/ USA/ 2024/ 88 mins) It’s fair to say that the work of Jim Hosking (The Greasy Strangler, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn) is an acquired taste. His films fall somewhere between Buñuelian surrealism, absurdist deadpan, and the gleeful trash of early John Waters. Yet his latest appears to be at least somewhat accessible. Reimagining the meeting between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder as they come up with the titular hit, it’s an irreverent examination of the nature of legend. The potential for transgression appears to be limited, but expect something truly odd from Hosking’s warped mind.

Hill (Alex Holmes/ UK/ 2024/ 90 mins) Damon Hill was 15 years old when his father, Formula 1 legend Graham, was killed in an air crash. Alex Holmes’ new documentary examines how Damon carved out his own legacy in the sport, culminating in his world title win in 1996. Fans of F1 will be more than familiar with the tale, but as Asif Kapadia‘s Senna showed, a good doc will appeal to a wider audience than a subject’s normal niche. Tragedy, drive, glamour; all the ingredients for an inspirational story are baked into this narrative.

Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari/ UK, Germany/ 2024/ 131 mins) Another film from a director with a 10 year gap between features, Athina Rachel Tangari’s (Attenberg, Chevalier) adaptation of Jim Crace‘s hallucinatory novel follows the disintegration of a late Middle Ages village. To what extent is this caused by newcomers to the village, or by the villagers’ xenophobia? Harry Melling and Caleb Landry Jones head the cast of this folk horror-tinged puzzle box.

Long Day’s Journey into Night (Jonathan Kent/ Ireland/ 2024/ 109 mind) Hollywood royalty Jessica Lange and Ed Harris lead this new adaptation of Eugene O’Neill‘s classic play. Jonathan Kent directed Lange in her Tony Award-winning performance of the play on Broadway and makes his feature debut. Set over 24 hours, the Tyrone family tear themselves apart from addiction, illness, and resentment.

Stationed at Home (Daniel Vincent Masciari/ USA/ 2024/ 120 mins) Festivals are where smaller scale projects get the chance to shine, and Stationed at Home is an offbeat character-driven drama in the tradition of early Jim Jarmusch. In 1998 the orbit of the International Space Station flying over New York makes cabbie Ralph (Erik Bjarnar) keen to end his night shift and get home to his telescope. His shift pulls a series of unconnected people into his own orbit. This intriguing premise feels like it could land somewhere between Linklater‘s Slacker and Kiarostami‘s A Taste of Cherry.

Two to One (Natja Brunckhorst/ Germany/ 2024/ 116 mins) Sandra Hüller, possible one of the most acclaimed actors of the last few years, leads an ensemble comedy set against the backdrop of German reunification in 1990. When a group of friends stumble across a trove of East German cash, just as it’s about to become worthless, they hatch a scheme to capitalise on the find. Good Bye Lenin! proved the clash between competing ideologies thrown suddenly together is rich in comic potential. and Two to One promises to adopt the same light touch.

My Dead Friend Zoe (Kyle Hausmann-Stokes/ USA/ 2024/ 102 mins) Ed Harris appears again in Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ debut about an Afghanistan veteran (Sonequa Martin-Green) who relies on her best friend (Natalie Morales) to navigate her PTSD. The problem is her friend is dead. Hausmann-Stokes draws on his own army experiences that also features Morgan Freeman, Gloria Reuben, and Harris as Martin-Green’s ailing grandfather. A serious subject dealt explored through warmth and humour.

The End (Joshua Oppenheimer/ Denmark, Ireland/ 2024/ 148 mins) Joshua Oppenheimer is known for acclaimed documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. For his debut feature, he’s gone for a star-studded post-apocalyptic musical. Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, and Michael Shannon have their lives in a high-end bunker turned upside down by the arrival of a young woman (Moses Ingram) from the outside. An unusual approach to the theme of complicity and the potential for normal human beings to participate in atrocities, it’s certainly an ambitious leap into feature films for Oppenheimer.

Zero (Jean Luc Herbulot/ USA/ 2024/ 90 mins) Congolese director Jean Luc Herbulot made a very striking debut in Saloum a few years back so we’re keen to see what he serves up with his next adrenaline ride. Two Americans (Hus Miller and Cam McHarg) wake up in Senegal with bombs strapped to their chests and a timer set to run out in 10 hours. Only Willem Dafoe‘s voice on the phone can provide the clues to solve their situation.

Glasgow Film Festival runs from Wed 26 Feb to Sun 9 Mar 2025