THE Glasgow Film Festival will open on 20 February this year with the UK premiere of Jonah Hill's directorial debut, Mid90s.
It will close with the UK premiere of Brian Welsh's Beats, on March 3, the film adaptation of Scottish playwright Kieran Hurley’s stage show about 90s rave culture.
Mid90s is a "coming-of-age comedy-drama" written and directed by Hill, and stars Sunny Suljic, Lucas Hedges and Katherine Waterston, and follows a 13-year-old boy who joins up with skateboarders while living in 1990s Los Angeles.
The soundtrack features an original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross alongside original 90s hip-hop.
The festival closes on 3 March with the UK premiere of the adaptation of Mr Hurley’s stage show Beats, set in 1994, just as the Criminal Justice Bill placed restrictions on rave culture.
Beats is directed by Brian Welsh and stars Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduates Cristian Ortega and Lorn Macdonald in their feature film debuts.
The film features an original soundtrack from DJ Twitch, who will DJ at the official festival after-party for all ticket holders at the Arches.
The 15th Glasgow Film Festival will run from 20 February to 3 March and the full programme will be announced on 23 January.
Allan Hunter, co-director of Glasgow Film Festival, said: "We are thrilled to close the festival with the UK premiere of the hotly anticipated screen version of Kieran Hurley’s Beats.
"It is a wildly entertaining, desperately poignant blast of rebellion, romance and bittersweet friendship that beautifully captures the end of an era in 1990s Scotland. Showcasing a wealth of talent on both sides of the camera, it is the perfect closing night film."
Brian Welsh, director of Beats, said: “We’re thrilled and honoured to be part of the Glasgow Film Festival this year, as the film was largely shot in Glasgow it feels like we are coming home. Many thanks to the programmers for having us and we look forward to being there in March."
www.glasgowfilm.org/festival
THE XpoNorth writers' Tweet Pitch is being brought back for 2019.
On 11 January writers can 'tweet pitch' their work to a panel of Scotland’s literary agents and publishers.
The event is open to pitches of unpublished fiction, nonfiction and writing and illustration for children from writers living and working in Scotland.
Their projects can be complete – or may still be in development.
The panel of iterary agents and publishers will read writers’ tweet pitches as they come in, and if they like what they read they’ll make contact with the pitching writer directly.
In January 2018, XpoNorth’s pitch received more than 2,500 tweets, pitching hundreds of unpublished books.
The Tweet Pitch is produced by XPONorth and the Association of Scottish Literary Agents.
Jenny Brown, Co-Chair of the Association of Scottish Literary Agents said: "There is no better way for a writer to start the new year than to pitch their work, to begin the year as they mean to go on and to make 2019 the year in which their writing gets attention."
https://xponorth.co.uk
THE National Galleries of Scotland have begun their revamp of the National Gallery.
Work has got underway to create a new path, new landscaping and steps in East Princes Street Gardens.
The gardens entrance to the Scottish National Gallery will temporarily close, as will the Scottish Café, restaurant and main gallery shop.
The £22m projec will transform former office, storage and display spaces into a new set of galleries that will be entered directly from the adjacent East Princes Street Gardens.
One controversial aspect has been the removal of trees in the park.
The NGS said that it will plant 22 new trees in East Princes Street Gardens with species "chosen to complement existing trees in the wider gardens."
These trees will be between 4.5ms and 6m in height.
They will replace 52 trees removed in autumn 2018.
www.nationalgalleries.org
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