Top billing for Glasgow Film Festival

GLASGOW’S fledgling film festival has been given a significant double boost after being named the best large-scale event in the country – as it emerged its long-running rival in Edinburgh had suffered another slump in ticket sales.

The Glasgow Film Festival claimed the top honour at the Scottish Event Awards after a year in which many critics claimed it was finally challenging the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s crown.

That view appears to be backed up by new figures showing the Edinburgh event, which was first held in 1947, is now fewer than 5,000 tickets sales ahead of the Glasgow one, which was first held in 2005.

Ticket sales at the Glasgow event reached 34,180 this year, up from 30,180 the previous year and 24,877 in 2009, while EIFF’s box office saw ticket sales slide, to 39,112 from 44,456 in 2010 and 49,569 in 2009.

Officials at the Centre for the Moving Image, which organises the Edinburgh festival, pointed out that the number of film premieres was reduced from 120 to 62 this year, as the event grappled with a drop in its budget from £1.2 million to £600,000 in the space of 12 months.

The Glasgow Film Festival, which is held every February, had its most successful year, bookended by gala opener Potiche, starring Catherine Denueve and Gerard Depardieu, while the closing night film was Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald’s latest feature, The Eagle.

Another highlight was the premiere of Scottish director David Mackenzie’s romantic comedy T in the Park, filmed at the event, as well as an appearance from director Ken Loach.

The Glasgow Film Festival was named best large event at last night’s Scottish Event Awards, which were held at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, beating off competition from Edinburgh’s month-long festival events and the outdoor Enchanted Forest event in Perthshire.

However, Scotland’s biggest sound and light spectacular, which now attracts more than 20,000 visitors to Pitlochry, claimed two major honours, the event management “grand prix”, and the award for best cultural event. The Hebridean Celtic Fesitval in Stornoway was named best large festival ahead of Glasgow rival Celtic Connections and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations.

The Glasgow Film Festival has grown hugely since its inception to include more than 250 events this year when it won funding from national events agency EventScotland for the first time.

Its organisers were at the Tor-onto International Film Festival yesterday.

However Gavin Miller, outgoing chief executive of the Centre for the Moving Image in Edinburgh, said: “All things considered we are very pleased with how our box office performed this year.

“Our budget was way down on the previous year, we had half the number of premieres. The fact is we made a profit, despite the funding difficulties, which wasn’t the case in 2010, when we had a much bigger budget.”

Other winners at last night’s awards, which were being held for the fourth time, included Glasgow’s Piping Live festival, which includes the World Bagpipe Championships, which was named best traditional event, while the World Archery Cup, which was staged in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, was named best sports event.

Judges were drawn from the fields of marketing, tourism, and hospitality, as well as events experts.