Well folks it looks like the Glasgow Film festival is less than a month away!

With 9 World premieres, 10 European premieres and 102 UK premieres plus lots of great guests and events any fan of good cinema will be eager to be there. Star guests including George Mackay, Caitlin Moran, Simon Bird, Emily Beecham, Celia Imrie, Bill Paterson, Haifaa Al-Mansour, Craig Roberts and the cast of highly anticipated Scots comedy Our Ladies.

But it’s more than big name guests World premieres of Sulphur & White and Flint and UK premieres of The True History of the Kelly Gang, The Truth, Lost Transmissions, Radioactive and the epic 14-hour Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema. Because the Festival closes on International Women’s Day that day will see every film shown be either directed or written by a woman or featuring a female lead, which a lovely sentiment. 

If you can get to Glasgow for this festival then please do, the city is a truly special place where the temperature may be cold but the people are warm. It is one of the UK’s largest film festivals and will host over 380 film screenings, talks and special events. Tickets go on sale today so you will want to get as soon as possible. And if you are looking some of my picks Measure for Measure looks brilliant.

Pawno writer/director Paul Ireland returns with a powerful adaptation of the Shakespeare play set in modern Melbourne. Hugo Weaving leads an impressive ensemble cast as worldweary crime boss Duke. His kingdom is an estate whose residents reflect the city’s multicultural population. It is a world filled with violence, drugs, betrayal and also star-crossed lovers in Muslim immigrant Jaiwara (Megan Hajjar) and aspiring musician Claudio (Mark Leonard Winter). Drawn together by tragedy, their struggle for love lies at the heart of this muscular tale of prejudice and mercy.

As does the South Korean Buddy Cop film Mrs and Miss Cops.

Once considered the Major Crime Unit’s finest cop, Mi-Young has since been relegated to a desk job. Her uneventful life is soon to be turned upside down when her sister-in-law, an overly enthusiastic hot shot rookie, is assigned to her team. When the pair uncover a vicious underground crime operation, they have to put their differences aside and face a race against time to clean up the streets for good! In the vein of Lethal Weapon and 21 Jump Street, this South Korean buddy cop comedy is a guaranteed thrill ride from start to finish.

The festival will also be showing a few classics such as the always amazing Total Recall and a few lesser known films that every should see like Train To Busan.

After a breach occurs at a local biotech facility, a workaholic father boards a high-speed train from Seoul to Busan with his estranged young daughter. What follows is a harrowing, adrenalin filled journey to rival the last train home between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverly on a Friday night. Join us for a thrilling evening in Neo Glasgow as you and your friends try to make it through the night avoiding infection from the zombie hoard. Remember, look out for signs of infection and trust no one!

The gore cut of Tammy and the T-Rex – and you all know that I love this movie.

Initially released straight to video and cut of all its gory goodness, Tammy and the T-Rex has finally been unleashed on the world in its original and best form. When Michael (Paul Walker) is mauled by some big cats at the local zoo, a mad scientist transplants his brain into a full-sized animatronic T-Rex. In order to be reunited with his high school sweetheart, Tammy (Denise Richards), Michael will have to stomp and chew his way through all who stand in his way. This fully restored gore-cut is the dino-carnage love story that you never knew you needed in your life.

The utterly bonkers Cult classic Tank Girl.

It is the year 2033. Earth is a desolate wasteland after a comet disrupts the planets natural rain cycle. Water is scarce and huge corporations fight to control the dwindling supply. Survival on this planet is tough, but Tank Girl is even tougher. Join our rebellion and hide out from the W+P troops in Neo Glasgow as we watch Lori Petty, Naomi Watts and Ice T join forces to take down the system!

They will also be screening Escape from Pretoria which looks brilliant.

A thrilling dramatisation of true events, Escape from Pretoria is based on the book by Tim Jenkin, played here by Daniel Radcliffe. Jenkin and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webb) are two white South Africans labelled ‘terrorists’ and imprisoned for their activism on behalf of the ANC. Sent to the brutal maximum security Pretoria Central Prison, ‘the white man’s Robben Island’, they start to plan a great escape that requires an ingenious use of handcrafted wooden keys. A stirring salute to the human spirit and to the many individuals of conscience who fought against apartheid.

And finally I just discovered they are showing the gorgeous and brutally stunning Blood Machines + Turbo Killer. This looks amazing and is one of the most unique pair of films of the last 10 years. 

Spawned from the massive online success of Carpenter Brut’s music video Turbo Killer, directorial team Seth Ickerman pull out all the stops and expand their galactic universe with an incredible feast for the senses. When two space hunters track down a renegade ship, they see the ghost of a young woman pull herself from the machine. Struggling to comprehend what exactly is going on, they find themselves following this mysterious woman to depths they never thought possible. Thus, setting in motion a neon-soaked, synthwave space epic that is sure to reverberate in your mind long after it has finished.

So if you are in the UK or near by I highly advise checking this festival out.