Glasgow film festival suits the city to a T

From a rock 'n' roll romantic comedy filmed over five days at the T in the Park music festival, to underwater images to be viewed by punters at a local swimming pool, the Seventh Glasgow Film Festival has unveiled its most ambitious programme yet.

• A scene from Submarine, directed by Richard Ayoade

With over 100,000 in funding, including backing for the first time from the EventScotland agency, the festival will showcase more than 250 films over ten days next month.

The biggest-ever line-up includes the world premiere of noted Scottish director David Mackenzie's romantic comedy You Instead, filmed at T in the Park in 2010 as a free-wheeling love story between the lead singers of two feuding bands.

In another coup, the event's closing gala is the UK premiere of The Eagle, the "sword and sandals" drama set in Roman Britain from the Oscar-winning Glasgow-born director Kevin MacDonald. The film stars Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell and Donald Sutherland.

Festival director Allison Gardner said screenings will run "from mainstream to arthouse, vintage to futuristic" across 15 venues. "We have always pledged to create a festival that truly offers something for all tastes and this year we have achieved that on an even greater scale," she said.

Scott Taylor, chief executive of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said the festival "continues to reinforce its reputation as the fastest growing film event in the UK and a key event in the city's cultural calendar."

The festival sold about 30,000 tickets last year, and Ms Gardner said she hoped to reach that figure again this year. The festivals runs 17-27 February.

She said. "I think they are now recognising us as flagship event now because we get a lot of people from all over, and overseas. Dubliners come, even though they have got their own festival."

• Analysis: 'A swimming pool event … just dive in and submerge yourself in what's on offer'

Sales compare with about 44,000 sold at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and the Glasgow festival is now rated the third in the UK after London and Edinburgh.

Possible guests will include Harry Shearer, the American actor and comedian best known for his work on The Simpsons,

Audiences will see his documentary The Big Uneasy, about America's poor response to the post-Katrina disaster.

The Indian director Dev Bengal is expected to attend the premiere of his film Road, Movie, part of a Beyond Bollywood strand of Indian film. Ken Loach and his son and fellow film director Jim Loach will also attend.

The line-up ranges from a strong documentary strand to a centenary celebration of the musical star Ginger Rogers with five seminal films.

Other vintage films include a screening of the African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. The 1951 classic will be introduced by Angela Allen, who worked on the film with director John Huston.Wet Sounds, at the North Woodside Leisure Centre, is billed as "cinema for the ear" where the audience dive and float in the Victorian baths, with underwater images and soundtrack.

The must-see screenings

• The Eagle based on Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Eagle of the Ninth, directed by Kevin Macdonald, with Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland.

• You Instead directed by David Mackenzie, a rom-com filmed at T in the Park.

• Potiche ,French comedy starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu.

• The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, famed director Werner Herzog explores French caves in his first 3D foray.

• Submarine, a British film made by Richard Ayoade, the IT Crowd actor in his directorial debut.

• Meek's Cutoff, a Western by the US director Kelly Reichardt, an independent film set in Oregon at the end of the 19th Century with a cast including Scotland's Shirley Henderson.

• Fair Game, about Valerie Plame, the CIA agent whose identity was exposed in a Washington scandal, directed by Doug Liman and starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.