GERARD Butler, Karen Gillan, Peter Mullan – some of the country's biggest screen stars are to entertain audiences at this year's Glasgow Film Festival (GFF).
The 12-day cinema celebration will feature more than 100 UK premieres, with seven world premieres also on the bill.
It includes Tell It To The Bees, a 1950s-set tale of love and scandal in a small Scottish town featuring New Zealand's Anna Paquin opposite Cinderella star Holliday Grainger, as well as The Vanishing, an "eerie" retelling of the century-old Flannan Isle mystery, which saw lighthouse keepers disappear.
That production stars Scots actors Butler and Mullan, while Gillan – whose career has taken her from Dr Who to the big-budget Marvel universe thanks to her role as blue-skinned Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy – can be seen in US drama All Creatures Here Below.
Altogether, almost 340 separate screenings will be held, with work on show from over 50 countries.
Sir Michael Palin will be amongst those attending, walking the red carpet for the UK premiere of Final Ascent, a film by Glasgow director Robbie Fraser about the life of Scots mountaineer Hamish MacInnes.
Palin and British mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington are amongst those who gave testimonies for the feature.
Stand-up Simon Amstell will also bring his comedy Benjamin to the February showcase, with Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta, American Horror Story star Matt Bomer and Swedish horror icon Christina Lindberg also set to attend.
Underlining the variety on offer, GFF co-director Allan Hunter said: “It is a real pleasure to be able to share the programme for Glasgow Film Festival 2019.
"The festival is peppered with exciting discoveries from around the world that range from action-packed Indian crowd-pleaser The Man Who Feels No Pain to elegant Vietnamese period piece The Third Wife, knockout coming of age tale Float Like a Butterfly from Ireland and the gorgeous Kyrgyzstan musical The Song of the Tree.
"I can’t wait for audiences to delight in Louis Garrel’s romantic A Faithful Man, embrace Patrick Wang’s Altman-esque epic A Bread Factory and shudder at The Vanishing with Peter Mullan and Gerard Butler."
Currently seen as Lord Darnley in Mary, Queen of Scots, Scottish Borders boy Jack Lowden will appear in wrestling feature Fighting With My Family, which also includes ex-WWE brawler The Rock.
Two new films starring Dev Patel – Hotel Mumbai, a dramatisation of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, and Michael Winterbottom's eagerly-awaited thriller The Wedding Guest – also have their UK launch at the city event.
Meanwhile, documentary Of Fish and Foe will chart the battle between the country's "last traditional net fishermen and the people who want them stopped".
Made by Fife's Trufflepig Films, it will show the efforts of animal activists to monitor and challenge the operations of the crew of the Gamrie Lass in north east Scotland.
Debut feature director Marilyn Edmond's Connect, which attempts to confront the issue of suicide among young men in Scotland, will also feature.
And Do No Harm is director Stephen Bennett's exploration of the legacy of Scots-born psychiatrist Dr Ewen Cameron and the experiments that contributed to systems of modern-day torture across the globe.
Meanwhile, Mackintosh Redux is the painstakingly remastered new version of Murray Grigor's 1969 film made to complement the Mackintosh Centenary Exhibition, with a new score by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
And film fans can also take part in special events centred around cult classics Alien, The Matrix, Ghostbusters and The Blair Witch.
Allison Gardner, GFF co-director, said: “Over the years at GFF we have excelled with our special events and this year is no exception. The Blair Witch Project at a secret location is sure to scare and thrill.
"As ever, our Sound & Vision strand is filled with music of all types from classic to jazz and a brilliant live event hosted by Lost Map records featuring Monoganon and Free Love performing to footage of Eigg filmed by Slow Tree.
"This heady strand is topped off with films such as Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell, starring Elisabeth Moss as a self-destructive rock star, and Brady Corbett’s electric Vox Lux. This year our Audience Award – GFF’s only award – features six out of 10 films that are directed by women with strong and vibrant films telling a variety of stories.”
General sale begins on Monday.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here