Glasgow Film Festival — 2025 Film Picks
Once again, Glasgow Film Festival has treated us to 12 days of exceptional programming for its 21st edition. As a bunch of card-carrying cinephiles, we scoured the list for our top film picks.
Susan – Spilt Milk
Nominated for Best Film at the 2025 IFTA, Spilt Milk follows 11-year-old Bobby, a would-be detective, in 1980s Dublin as he searches for his missing older brother, Oisin. From the trailer, I expect hazy nostalgia, humour, the darkness of poverty, and the addiction epidemic prevalent in the housing estates of the time. I’m gearing up for this to be an emotional gut punch.
David – GFF Karaoke
We love, hate and remember movies for lots of reasons. I love that the GFF have an evening to celebrate the music of films. My teenage CD collection was hugely inspired by Wim Wenders movies I watched at the GFT. If you haven’t seen Until the End of the World, I would highly recommend watching it, or even just buying the soundtrack!
Bea – Dogtooth
The first time I watched Dogtooth, I was probably too young to fully grasp it. I remember stumbling across it on TV late at night and sitting there thinking, What did I just watch? From that moment on, I was hooked on Yorgos Lanthimos. His films challenge societal norms in the most unsettling ways while somehow making you laugh at the darkest moments.
Keli – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
A powerful and thought-provoking film from 1975 – which is perhaps more relevant now than it was then?
Set in a mental hospital, it explores important themes like mental health, personal freedom and institutional authority. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking.
Also: put me in front of anything starring Jack Nicholson and I’m happy (with the exception of Anger Management).
Kevin – Four Mothers
In Four Mothers, a young writer is dumped with the responsibility of looking after his friends’ mothers while they run off to Maspalomas Pride for the weekend.
This movie has been on the radar for a while now! I’ve always been a huge fan of this genre of humble and life-affirming queer comedy. Something light, heartfelt and grounded that I can see myself in. Maybe I’ll take my own mum!
Andrew – Boys Go to Jupiter
I like the look of this surreal animation. Julian Glander, the director of Boys Go to Jupiter created a game called ART SQOOL which was great – I’m sure the film will be just as entertaining!
Neil – U are The Universe
I’m a sucker for an existential deep space drama, particularly when made on a low-budget (think Silent Running or Moon) where the film’s emotional strength comes from the actors’ performance, not the SFX (although some CGI-fests can still be great movies: Interstellar or Gravity). So this Ukrainian-made film seems very timely with all the crap that is currently happening on our own wee planet.
The last man alive, floating through spacetime looking for meaning… sounds pretty depressing but count me in!
The festival runs until Sunday, March 9th in venues across Glasgow. Get your tickets here!
Check out our case study for an overview of our with GFF over the years.
