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What a right Minger

Obviously we’re a tad Glesca-centric here at the Thumbcast, what with the majority of Team Thumbcast being from round these parts. So the launch of the Glasgow Film Festival always gives us a giddy little thrill, not least because there’s usually a wealth of geek-friendly films and events to enjoy.

With Mark Millar and John McShane curating the Kapow! comic films strand for the second year running, the Film4 Frightfest mini-festival running once again and a host of special screenings and events, there’s a veritable smorgasbord of top notch cinema to be seen across the city. Literally hundreds of films, in fact, so here’s our guide to the highlights in 2012.

KAPOW!

Millar himself will be speaking at this year’s Kapow! on February 21, alongside long time Glasgow collaborator Frank Quitely, talking about their first project together since The Authority and the transition of work from print to screen.

There’s quite the line-up of speakers, in fact. Bryan Hitch, Kate Brown and Charlie Adlard are all doing Q&As at Glasgow’s CCA on February 22.

The legendary John McShane will be at the CCA the day before, along with Dr Chris Murray, talking Scotland and the Future of Comics, one of a number of panels that also look at Women in Comics and Writing for Games and Comics. Basically, park yourself at the CCA on February 21 and 22, for the great and good in comics writing will be there.

The film line-up for Kapow! is tasty – Thumbcast karaoke favourite Flash Gordon is screening at the GFT, along with The Crow, Vault inductee Superman and A History of Violence.

More excitingly, oft-mentioned on the podcast Scottish superhero film Night Is Day – spun off into a film by Fraser Coull from his web series – is screening on February 22 at the CCA. Here’s a trailer:

Also screening that day is Electric Man – a low-budget Scottish comic book movie (literally, it’s about a comic book…ish), which has been getting much love from Scots film critics and writers in recent times.

FRIGHTFEST

Now in its seventh year at the Festival, the Film4-sponsored horror strand seems overwhelmed with found footage films, a genre which a pal suggested has become the new zombie film in terms of its ubiquity.

Definitely worth checking out is The Raid, Gareth Evans’ much hyped, insane-looking “SWAT team vs a tower block” which has been the darling of YouTube trailer watchers across the world.

February 24 will see the GFT screen Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel – the Scottish premiere of a fascinating-looking documentary following the rise of the king of low-budget exploitation trash, which features contributions from various star name Corman collaborators such as Jack Nichoson and Traci Lords.

War of the Dead should keep zombie fans happy – a WW2 battle between Finnish and American forces and the undead legions of Nazi experimentation victims. Think, basically, a cinematic version of the Nazi Zombie minigame in Call of Duty.

It has its UK premier on Feb 24 at the GFT, a day before the British bow of Wang’s Arrival – a creepy Italian sci-fi tale about an interpreter brought in to translate the mysterious Mr Wang in a pitch-black room.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Extraterrestrial: "No, the earth didn't move last night, but space seems to have..."

The festival opens on February 16 with the UK premiere of Your Sister’s Sister – starring Emily Blunt – by hotly tipped director Lynn Shelton, and ends on February 26 with the award-winning Le Havre, about a showshiner who befriends a young African illegal immigrant looking for his mum.

Among the films making their British debut are The Decoy Bride – filmed around the city and starring David Tennant and Kelly Macdonald, the new film adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s acclaimed novel Ecstacy (which, amusingly, debuts in Glasgow rather than Welsh’s native Edinburgh), and the glossy period drama Bel Ami starring Twiglet vampire hunkboy thing Robert Pattinson.

Low budget Spanish alien invasion/one-night-stand flick Extraterrestrial screens at the GFT on February 18 (and Cineworld the night after), and definitely looks worth checking out.

Babycall, starring Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’s own darling Noomi Rapace, screens at Cineworld on February 17 and looks rather creepy – about a single mum fleeing her abusive husband, whose baby monitor starts picking up seemingly supernatural sounds.

We’re very excited to see Death Watch – Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed sci-fi drama featuring Harvey Keitel as a reporter who has a camera implanted in his eye to film the final days of a dying woman for millions of viewers, is getting a screening on February 26. Tavernier’s scheduled to introduce the film in person – which was made in Glasgow in the late 1970s.

There’s a double helping of Muppets – the new film gets a screening on February 5, but more interesting is the documentary Being Elmo, about the puppeteer behind the famous Sesame Street furball, which screens as part of the Youth Film Festival on February 15.

One of my own personal favourite films of all time – the 1958 Titanic drama A Night To Remember - screens on February 19th after a new restoration, marking the centenary of the tragic sinking.

2012 also marks the centenary of ultimate cinema song and dance man Gene Kelly, and a retrospective across the festival will remember him – so if you’ve never seen Brigadoon, be thankful, give it a wide berth and go see An American In Paris instead…

Oh, and Butcher Boy – whose number includes Thumbcast contributor (and theme tune arranger) Alison Eales – are performing a live soundtrack at the Berkeley Suite as part of the Glasgow Short Film Festival on February 10.

Gary McConnachie at the Record has a good rundown of the rest of the Frightfest screenings, while Jon Melville’s spoken to Festival director Allan Hunter over at Reel Scotland. I recommend checking both out.  And obviously keep an eye out on TheThumbcast.com and the podcast for reviews, interviews and other gubbins we manage to drag together, because we’re barely scratching the surface of the schedule here.  Even once you’ve got through the geek friendly stuff, the 2012 festival looks a fantastic line-up.

Tickets for all the events go on sale from January 19 via the Glasgow Film Festival website – where you can also see a full programme of the 230+ films and events taking place across the city next month.