Double acts planned to be the focus of 2016 Glasgow Film Festival

The work of on-screen double acts such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is to be a focus of next year’s Glasgow Film Festival (GFF).

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Image by Eden, Janine and Jim / CC BY 2.0

The festival, which will run from 17-28 February, traditionally contains a retrospective of films by a particular movie star, but organisers have decided to highlight classic Hollywood partnerships in 2016.

The Dream Teams on the Silver Screen strand will show the work of double acts like Taylor and Burton, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

The specific films included will be announced with the main programme in January but organisers have announced entrance to all of the films in the strand will be free.

The 2015 festival was praised as the ”best ever”, with audience figures at more than 40,000 for a second year.

It closed with the premiere Force Majeure, followed by the announcement of the inaugural Audience Award for best film by a first-time director won by Radiator, a low-budget British film created by Tom Browne.

A view over Glasgow. Image by Bruce Cowan / CC BY-SA 2.0

The 2016 GFF will also focus on Argentinian cinema in a showcase titled Roads To The South while there will be an attempt to bring together international film-makers and funding bodies in an industry focus.

Festival co-director Allan Hunter said: “Chemistry is everything when it comes to creating the perfect screen couple: when audiences sense that electricity, they want to see it again and again.

“Dream Teams on the Silver Screen celebrates the very finest Hollywood duos, individuals who made cinema history together in unforgettable classics.

“Meanwhile, the international reaction to films like 2009’s The Secret In Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) and this year’s Wild Tales (Relatos salvages), which premiered at GFF 15, has been part of the surge of interest in Argentine cinema, and Roads To The South is designed to celebrate the range of bright new talents in Argentinian film-making making their mark around the world.”

Stars who have attended the festival in recent years include Alan Rickman, Richard Dreyfuss, Gemma Arterton, Armando Iannucci and Richard Ayoade.

Festival co-director Allison Gardner said: “While GFF’s programme will always put audiences front and centre, we are delighted to be able to host something like GFF Industry Focus this year.

“Bringing this sort of industry presence to Scotland will hopefully feed into and strengthen the Scottish film industry, creating connections and opportunities, and offering international insight.”

(Press Association)