In 2010 we introduced a jury prize for the first time. We lost founder-director Penelope Bartlett to a new career in the US, replaced by Matt Lloyd, previously the short film programmer for Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Some of the highlights of the festival included the first international retrospective of New Orleans-based collective Court 13, who later made the Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild, Cynthia Beatt opening the festival with her Berlin double-bill The Invisible Frame and Cycling the Frame, and Space and Light Revisited – Murray Grigor’s enthralling dual screen presentation of modernist architectural masterpiece St Peter’s Seminary at Cardross.
The most memorable film I saw at GSFF was at the 2010 Closing Gala where Murray Grigor’s film Space and Light Revisited was presented. First created in 1972 Space and Light explores the recently finished modernist monolith that is St Peter’s Seminary. I love modernist architecture and have visited St Peter’s many times – the chance to see the original film was an opportunity not to be missed in itself. However, with Space and Light Revisited, Grigor presents the original film alongside a shot-by-shot replica exploration of the building, which by 2009 was a crumbling ruin. The juxtaposition between the two films was incredibly affecting.
Jen White, GSFF Festival Assistant 2010-2011, now Programme Associate at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Award Winners
Best International Short Film Award
Peter in Radioland – Johanna Wagner | Scotland | 2009
Jury
Cynthia Beatt – Filmmaker
Ray Tintori – Filmmaker
Louise Welsh – Scottish author