Sir Alex Ferguson, Jodie Foster and Ewen Bremner to appear at Glasgow Film Festival as event goes online for first time

Scottish football icon Sir Alex Ferguson, Oscar winning actress Jodie Foster and Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner will all be making guest appearances at the forthcoming Glasgow Film Festival, organisers have revealed.

Alex Ferguson waves to fans before the start of the English Premier League football match between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United, his last game before retirement, in 2013.

New documentaries on the life of Sir Alex and rock legend Tina Turner have been added to the festival line-up.

Oscar-winning Glasgow filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, whose new Guantanamo Bay legal drama The Mauritanian will premiere at the festival, will appear in conversation with two of its stars, Foster and Tahar Rahim.

James Bond star Ben Whishaw, who has played Q in the recent films, will discuss his performance as a man careering towards a breakdown in Surge.

Organisers of the event, which will be staged entirely online for the first time, announced three more premieres in the programme, which will run from 24 February-7 March.

Tina, which has been made by Academy Award-winning directors Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin, is billed as both “the ultimate celebration” of the 81-year-old American singer-songwriter, who shot to fame in the 1960s, and “an intimate portrait of a woman who overcame extreme adversity to define her career, her identity and her legacy on her own terms.”

The documentary on Sir Alex, which has been directed by his son Jason and made by Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald, was filmed while he was recovering from a brain haemorrhage he suffered three years ago when he was aware that his memory might desert him. Sir Alex and Jason will take part in an online Q&A as part of the festival.

Speaking about the documentary, Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, which will feature previously unseen footage, Ferguson said: “Losing my memory was my biggest fear when I suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2018.

Alex Ferguson with a newspaper report of his famous hat-trick for St Johnstone against Rangers in 1963.

“In the making of this film I was able to revisit the most important moments of my life, good and bad.

“Having my son Jason direct this film has ensured an honest and intimate account.”

Bremner will be discuss his portrayal of Scottish music industry mogul Alan McGee with director Nick Moran at the festival, which has secured the premiere of Creation Stories.

The festival has also announced it has secured another new Bremner film, First Cow, which will see him star alongside John Magaro, Orion Lee and Toby Jones in a story about two travellers going on the run from a band of vengeful hunters in 1820s northwest America.

A new Tina Turner documentary will be screened at this year's Glasgow Film Festival.

The festival has already announced masterclasses with Kevin Macdonald, director of One Day In September, The Last King of Scotland, State of Play and Whitney, and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, the Glasgow-born co-writer of the multi award-winning First World War drama 1917.

Other guests including Ben Sharrock, the Scottish director behind Limbo, the acclaimed drama focusing on a group of refugees sent to a remote Scottish island to await a decision on their asylum applications, and Rob Savage, director of horror The Host.

The festival, which has created its own online platform to screen films, says its line-up will feature 10 world premieres, three European premieres and 49 UK premieres.

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