We are thrilled, humbled and more than a little surprised to find Glasgow Short Film Festival included on US magazine MovieMaker’s list of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World in 2019. The list, which the magazine publishes each summer, is compiled by a panel of industry insiders focusing primarily on US and Canadian events. This year’s edition features only four festivals outside North America. As well as GSFF, festivals in Finland, Poland and our friends at Dokufest, Kosovo got the nod, alongside essential events such as True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri and the very wonderful Borscht Film Festival in Miami.
MovieMaker defines festival cool as “putting on a graceful, seemingly-effortless showcase—one that elides the hard work, ingenuity, and planning invested by their founders and artistic directors”. We’ll happily take the compliment, but to that we would add all the hard work and ingenuity of staff, volunteers and partners, not to mention the support and enthusiasm of our audience, without which the whole enterprise would be impossible.
MovieMaker singled us out for our “collaborative, global spirit”, and we certainly owe a massive debt of thanks and love to the international family of festival programmers, filmmakers and short film freaks who have advised, helped and frequently saved us over the last twelve years. In particular we’d like to take this opportunity to thank Film Africa and the British Council, who are helping us to gather more African submissions this year. Sub-Saharan Africa has been poorly represented by the festival in the past, and we’re delighted to be working with such wonderful partners to finally address that gap and move closer to becoming a truly global event.
Submissions to the 2020 festival are currently open. Look out for more news about the festival this autumn, and massive thanks to MovieMaker for this boost.