Animated adventure leads way as film festival opens
THE UK premiere of Wes Anderson’s new animated adventure has launched this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. The screening of the Isle Of Dogs was the curtain-raiser to the 2018 festival on Wednesday evening at the Glasgow Film Theatre.
The stop-motion film, set in a dystopian future Japan, follows a boy’s odyssey in search of his dog and features actors Scarlett Johansson, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton among the voice cast.
Speaking on the red carpet, festival co-director Allison Gardner said of the launch: “It’s so great to get to this stage because it takes such a lot of planning and there’s a big team of people who work really hard all year round.
“I’m so delighted that we’re kicking off with such a fantastic film – and a UK premiere.”
The opening gala for Glasgow’s 14th annual festival – attended by Isle of Dogs producer Jeremy Dawson and VisitScotland’s four-legged “ambassadog” George – comes four years after Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel launched the 2014 outing of the festival.
Ms Gardner said of the launch film: “It’s absolutely fantastic and so beautifully crafted. It’s absolutely out of this world.”
The festival features more than 330 separate events and screenings, showcasing more than 180 films from 51 countries.
Six world premieres and seven European premieres feature in the line up.
Karen Gillan, David Tennant, Paddy Considine and Gemma Arterton are among the screen stars expected to attend this year’s festival during its 12-day run.
Hollywood star Gillan will hit the red carpet for the world premiere of her directorial debut.
Filmed in Glasgow and her home city of Inverness, The Party’s Just Beginning – for which Gillan also wrote the script and plays the leading on-screen part – is described as a honest tale of loss, grief and survivor’s guilt.
This year’s festival runs until March 4.