New Ewan McGregor movies get top billing in Glasgow Film Festival's 20th line-up

Lorn Macdonald, Honor Swinton Byrne, Hannah Jarett-Scott and Jessica Hardwick among the rising Scots stars to feature

Two new movies from Ewan McGregor are to be premiered when the Glasgow Film Festival returns for its landmark 20th edition.

The Star Wars and Trainspotting actor will star alongside his daughter Clara McGregor as a fictional father and daughter in the road movie Bleeding Love, one of the 90 premieres in the programme.

The line-up also features a dysfunctional family comedy based on Swedish novel Mother, Couch, which will see McGregor star alongside Rhys Ifans, as well as a retrospective screening of Danny Boyle's Edinburgh-set thriller Shallow Grave, which propelled the actor to fame 30 years ago.

Glasgow Film Festival director Allison Gardner at the launch of the 2024 programme. Picture: John Devlin

Rising Scottish stars being championed include previous festival favourite Lorn Macdonald, who will star in Glasgow filmmaker Ciaran Lyons’ black comedy Tummy Monster, about a tattoo artist who becomes embroiled in psychological battle with an international pop star, while Honor Swinton Byrne stars in Drift, a drama focusing on a refugee who befriends an American tour guide after arriving on a Greek island.

The festival will feature director George Jaques’ debut feature Black Dog, which follows two teenage boys on a road trip from London to Scotland, romantic drama Falling Into Place, which is partly set in the Isle of Skye, and the premiere a new season of BBC Scotland’s swimming pool-set love story Float, which stars Hannah Jarett-Scott and Jessica Hardwick.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald will return to his home city to launch his latest documentary, on the fashion designer John Galliano, while the festival will premiere a newly-restored documentary following Sir Billy Connolly on a tour of Ireland in 1975, the year he shot to film with his TV appearances.

Audiences will be able to revisit Ratcatcher, the acclaimed debut of Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, to coincide with the award-winning film’s 25th anniversary.

Ewan McGregor stars alongside Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle in the new comedy drama Mother, Couch - one of the premieres in this year's Glasgow Film Festival programme.

The festival will close with the world premiere of a new documentary following the stand-up comic Janey Godley on tour around Scotland as she comes to terms with living with terminal cancer and open with the UK premiere of romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding, which will see Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian play a gym manager and bodybuilder whose new relationship leads them into danger.

Also being premiered is Bucky F*cking Dent, a new comedy starring The X-Files actor David Duchovny, who has adapted his own novel about the reunion of an aspiring novelist and his dying dad.

New British movies in the line-up include Edge of Summer, a Cornwall-set drama about an 11-year-old girl whose holiday with her mother takes an unexpectedly dark turn, and screenwriter’s survival thriller Jericho Ridge, which sees a small town police officer come under siege without backup when it is targeted by a drug cartel.

Festival director Allison Gardner said: “I am extremely proud to have been here for every one of the festival’s 20 editions. My thanks goes to everyone who has helped us to get this far.

Katy O'Brian and Kristen Stewart star in the romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding, which will open the Glasgow Film Festival.

"Many, many people have worked incredibly hard to make this the friendliest film festival in the world.”

Isabel Davis, executive director of Screen Scotland, one of the festival’s key funders, said: “We are thrilled to support this very special edition of the Glasgow Film Festival. This year’s outstanding programme richly demonstrates its dedication to the best in cinema from Scotland and around the world.”